GENEVA, July 21 - U.N. relief agencies, in a clear appeal to Israel, on
Friday called for safe passage to take vital medical supplies and food to tens
of thousands of people who have fled their homes amid Israeli bombing in
Lebanon.
The agencies also warned that disease could sweep through packed refugee
centres and overwhelmed hospitals unless Israel promised it would not attack
trucks ready to take in water purification and sanitation supplies.
"We appeal for all parties to the conflict to guarantee the safe passage of
humanitarian goods," hristiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme (WFP),
which is in overall charge of U.N. logistics for the relief operation, told a
news briefing.
U.N. convoys would be clearly identified and the sides in the fighting would
be given advance notice of their movement.
"It is vital that there are safe corridors for humanitarian aid to reach
those in need, but we have no guarantees of safe passage to the mountain
regions," refugee agency UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond told the briefing.
"The key problem is access," said UNICEF children's agency spokeswoman
Wilvina Belmonte. "Children are bearing the brunt of the hostilities and we have
to be allowed to help them get through this crisis."
She said one third of the Lebanese dead so far were children, and they
accounted for nearly half of those displaced, especially from the mountain
regions where Hizbollah has a strong presence and which have been especially
hard hit.
ISRAELI BLOCKADE
Israel said on Thursday it had been in contact with U.N. agencies and
relevant non-government organisations (NGOs) to try to facilitate the flow of
humanitarian aid to Lebanon, on which it has imposed a blockade.
The Swiss-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it had
sent two trucks early on Friday with 24 tonnes of food, first aid kits and
medicine from Beirut to the southern port of Tyre, where the main hospital is
overwhelmed.
But agencies said roads, including routes along which supplies could flow
from U.N. bases in Syria and Jordan, were still being bombed as Israel pressed
its drive to force Hizbollah forces out of south Lebanon.
