![[Lebanon] The first WFP convoy to the south of Lebanon arrived on 26 July. [Date picture taken: 07/26/2006]](https://assets.thenewhumanitarian.org/s3fs-public/styles/responsive_large_2x/public/images/200672811.jpg.webp?itok=DNjoW0K_ "The WFP sent its first convoy of aid to South Lebanon on 26 July.")
It has yet to lift its blockade of Lebanon, but Israel has eased restrictions on the passage of ships carrying food and other essential supplies, such as fuel, into Lebanon from nearby Cyprus.
"Israel's Ministry of Defence in Tel Aviv has been working with the United Nations, the International Red Cross and NGOs, to get aid into Lebanon by land, air and sea,” said Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry.
Israel has been using gunboats and aircraft to stop the movement of most goods into Lebanon since 12 July, when it launched attacks on the armed wing of the Shi’ite Hezbollah party inside Lebanon.
The blockade, it said, was intended to prevent fresh weapons from getting to Hezbollah.
With a United Nations-brokered ceasefire now in place, Israel says it is allowing more aid through. “During the fighting we got an average of 30 convoys into Lebanon a day,” Israeli spokesman Regev told IRIN, referring to supplies coming by land from Syria. “Now the fighting is over, that number can increase dramatically. There's no problem with the humanitarian support."
During the 34-day conflict, relief agencies protested they were unable to bring in as many supplies as displaced Lebanese needed. Access by air was also blocked, with Israel bombing Beirut International Airport. The UN only managed to fly in a few aid planes.
On Thursday though, a passenger flight landed at Beirut airport, the first in five weeks.
A British Airways partner, BMED, is due to send humanitarian aid on Friday, and scheduled flights are expected to resume next week.
Some 94 roads and 77 bridges were also destroyed in Israeli air strikes, according to Lebanon’s main relief council. Two main roads to Syria have been rendered impassable, greatly hampering the efforts of humanitarian agencies to deliver relief items by land.
Access by sea is therefore vital. The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) says its ships were not given permission by Israel to dock in Lebanon for about four weeks, until Thursday when two sailed into Beirut, with another carrying trucks filled with supplies docking earlier in the southern town of Tyre.
Robin Lodge, spokesman for the WFP, said concerns about insurance coverage meant many ship owners were unwilling to allow their vessels to enter Lebanese waters despite Israeli assurances that they would not be targeted.
“As far as humanitarian shipments are concerned, we have been getting as much cooperation [from Israel] as we have been asking for [since the 14 August ceasefire],” Lodge said. “We are talking to them about every ship on a case by case basis.”
The Lebanese government says two fuel tankers that had been waiting to be granted safe passage were also allowed to dock in Lebanon on Thursday after the UN negotiated permission for them from Israel. Another tanker was expected on Friday.
These should help relieve country-wide fuel shortages that have caused power cuts and have been of particular concern to hospitals unable to function normally.
CH/LS/ED/CB
"Israel's Ministry of Defence in Tel Aviv has been working with the United Nations, the International Red Cross and NGOs, to get aid into Lebanon by land, air and sea,” said Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israel’s Foreign Ministry.
Israel has been using gunboats and aircraft to stop the movement of most goods into Lebanon since 12 July, when it launched attacks on the armed wing of the Shi’ite Hezbollah party inside Lebanon.
The blockade, it said, was intended to prevent fresh weapons from getting to Hezbollah.
With a United Nations-brokered ceasefire now in place, Israel says it is allowing more aid through. “During the fighting we got an average of 30 convoys into Lebanon a day,” Israeli spokesman Regev told IRIN, referring to supplies coming by land from Syria. “Now the fighting is over, that number can increase dramatically. There's no problem with the humanitarian support."
During the 34-day conflict, relief agencies protested they were unable to bring in as many supplies as displaced Lebanese needed. Access by air was also blocked, with Israel bombing Beirut International Airport. The UN only managed to fly in a few aid planes.
On Thursday though, a passenger flight landed at Beirut airport, the first in five weeks.
A British Airways partner, BMED, is due to send humanitarian aid on Friday, and scheduled flights are expected to resume next week.
Some 94 roads and 77 bridges were also destroyed in Israeli air strikes, according to Lebanon’s main relief council. Two main roads to Syria have been rendered impassable, greatly hampering the efforts of humanitarian agencies to deliver relief items by land.
Access by sea is therefore vital. The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) says its ships were not given permission by Israel to dock in Lebanon for about four weeks, until Thursday when two sailed into Beirut, with another carrying trucks filled with supplies docking earlier in the southern town of Tyre.
Robin Lodge, spokesman for the WFP, said concerns about insurance coverage meant many ship owners were unwilling to allow their vessels to enter Lebanese waters despite Israeli assurances that they would not be targeted.
“As far as humanitarian shipments are concerned, we have been getting as much cooperation [from Israel] as we have been asking for [since the 14 August ceasefire],” Lodge said. “We are talking to them about every ship on a case by case basis.”
The Lebanese government says two fuel tankers that had been waiting to be granted safe passage were also allowed to dock in Lebanon on Thursday after the UN negotiated permission for them from Israel. Another tanker was expected on Friday.
These should help relieve country-wide fuel shortages that have caused power cuts and have been of particular concern to hospitals unable to function normally.
CH/LS/ED/CB
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
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