UN warns Lebanon aid supply could be cut off

Israel’s heavy overnight bombing of Beirut’s main access road to the north has severed the last major overland route to bring relief supplies into Lebanon, international aid agencies said today.

“This is Lebanon’s umbilical cord,” Christiane Berthiaume of the World Food Programme said.

“This (road) has been the only way for us to bring in aid. We really need to find other ways to bring relief in.”

Three bridges along the Mediterranean coast road from Arida on the northern border with Syria to the Lebanese capital were destroyed, said Berthiaume. WFP is co-ordinating United Nations relief efforts in the country.

A convoy that was meant to carry supplies and emergency personnel to Beirut today is now stuck in Arida, she said, and UN teams have so far been refused permission to assess the damage caused by the bombing.

She added that UN trucks might be able to take secondary roads, but this would slow down aid shipments.