Israel denies UN and Redcross aid convoys access to south Lebanon

SIX UN and Red Cross convoys destined for southern Lebanon were delayed yesterday after failing to receive security clearance from Israeli military forces, although another convoy reached the besieged town of Qana.

Lebanon’s fuel shortages, meanwhile, were a new threat to aid deliveries to the hundreds of thousands of displaced Lebanese. Relief agencies have appealed to Israel to allow oil shipments to Lebanese ports.

“Our convoy movements are being hampered, leaving people in the south stranded for nearly three weeks,” said Amer Daoudi, emergency coordinator for the World Food Programme (WFP).

Mr Daoudi said WFP received permission from Israel yesterday for only one of three planned convoys — a shipment to bring food, water and medical supplies to Tibnine, southern Lebanon.

The UN requires that the Lebanese government and Israeli army are notified of and acknowledge the route and time of each convoy.

“We have no time to waste,” Mr Daoudi said. “They are running out of food, water and medicine.

“Many are poor, sick or elderly and could not be evacuated earlier.”

The two UN aid shipments unable to reach their destinations were intended for the coastal Lebanese city of Naqoura and the hillside town of Rmaich, about 135km south of Beirut, said WFP spokeswoman Christiane Berthiaume.

Naqoura, close to the Israeli border, is the home of the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon.

Rmaich usually has 5,000 residents but is hosting 25,000 who fled fighting in surrounding areas.

At least a dozen trucks loaded with goods from the WFP and other UN agencies were stuck in Beirut as a result of the halted convoys.

Four Red Cross convoys, headed for the towns of Marwahin and Aytaroun along the Lebanese-Israeli border, also have been stopped, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.

“We did not receive the green light from the Israeli defence force,” ICRC spokesperson Annick Bouvier said, adding the ICRC will instead focus on helping refugees and residents in the southern port of Tyre.

Another WFP convoy arrived yesterday in Qana, where more than 50 people died in an Israeli air strike on Sunday.