Humanitarian aid corridor fails to materialise

Despite Israel's announcement last weekend of a 48 hour suspension of aerial bombing in southern Lebanon, fear of air attack continued to hamper humanitarian efforts in the region, according to aid workers. And as Hezbollah rocket attacks continued on Israel, some medical establishments there came under attack.

Figure 1.

A Red Cross worker carries the body of a girl pulled from a house in Qana, Lebanon, which was hit by an Israeli air strike

Credit: NICHOLAS ASFOURI/GETTY

Israel's air force resumed attacks on “immediate threats” within 12 hours of the announcement. A spokesman for Israel's army said that the attacks were not being directed at roads, bridges, or infrastructure during the pause in bombardment. However, aid convoys were still being denied permission to bring supplies to the southern border region, said the United Nations' World Food Programme and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

A six truck convoy assembled by the World Food Programme was refused permission by Israeli forces on Sunday to travel to the southern town of Marjayoun, bringing medicines and 57 tonnes of food. Three days earlier, a similar convoy had been permitted to travel to Tyre.

Last week, Marjayoun was serving as a logistical base for Red Cross convoys to southern villages. Reports suggest that the town itself is now completely cut off from aid.

The Red Cross also met with refusals when it sought Israeli permission to dispatch four aid convoys from Beirut to the south on Monday. Both organisations routinely require assurances from all parties that their convoys will not be attacked. The Red Cross acknowledged it had sought permission from Hezbollah, but did not reveal the organisation's answer. “All I can say is that we did not get the green light from the [Israeli defence forces],” said the Red Cross's spokeswoman, Antonella Notari, in Geneva.

Aid workers expressed frustration with the situation at a press conference in Beirut on Monday. “The UN is well aware that Lebanon and the Lebanese government would have been capable of providing for the entire country had there not been a military blockade by land, air, and sea,” said Mona Hammam, the UN's resident coordinator in Lebanon and humanitarian coordinator.

Ms Hammam also worried about shortage of fuel for relief convoys. “If we run out of fuel everything will come to a standstill,” she said.

A Red Cross convoy that did have permission from Israeli forces to enter Lebanon from Syria last Friday never crossed the border after drivers refused to go further.

Meanwhile, in Israel, rocket attacks from Hezbollah disrupted some medical facilities. The ophthalmology department at Israel's Western Galilee Government Hospital in Nahariya took a direct hit from Hezbollah rockets on Saturday, causing much damage to property but no injuries because patients had been moved to reinforced wards.

Ha'emek's Medical Centre in Afula, which has been hit by a longer range guided missile plus many Katyusha rockets, has reduced services and evacuated some of its wards.