Seven days since Israeli and US bombing in Iran prompted
ongoing counter-strikes across the Middle East,
humanitarians confirmed massive upheaval in Lebanon, with
hundreds of shelters now full, as whole suburbs of Beirut
have emptied.
“Israel’s military ground incursions
into southern Lebanon, blanket displacement orders for the
population in Beirut’s southern suburbs, the Bekka region
and the full area to the south of the Latani River, and its
continued airstrikes on different parts of the country are
bringing more misery, more suffering to an already weary
civilian population,” said Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson
for the UN human rights office, OHCHR.
Israeli
strikes intensify in Lebanon
From the UN migration
agency, IOM, Chief of Mission Lebanon Mathieu Luciano
described the dramatic deterioration in the country on
Thursday evening as the Israeli army carried out “multiple
air strikes on the southern suburb of Beirut
overnight”.
He added that many collective shelters
are at full capacity, especially in Beirut and Mount
Lebanon, “so, people are just redirected to other
shelters, especially in the north, in Al Qaa, in safe places
in the Bekka as well.”
The UN refugee agency, UNHCR,
has declared the escalating crisis a major humanitarian
emergency requiring an immediate regional
response.
UNHCR Director for Emergencies Ayaki Ito
told journalists in Geneva that the conflict is triggering
significant population movements across the region and into
Southwest Asia.
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Nearly 25 million people in the
affected areas are already refugees, internally displaced or
recent returnees, placing additional strain on fragile host
countries.
Hormuz bottleneck
The major
commercial shipping crisis caused by the war which has
practically halted all vessel movement in the Strait of
Hormuz south of Iran is already impacting UN agencies and
partners seeking to dispatch lifesaving relief to Gaza and
Sudan, among other emergencies.
The narrow channel
carries nearly one-fifth of global oil along with large
volumes of commercial goods.
“All traffic via sea
has significantly slowed down,” said Anne Schaefer, IOM
Deputy Director for humanitarian response and recovery.
“This is the case in Port Sudan, but also in other ports
of the continent.”
Gaza aid constricted
For
Gaza, shelter items, tarps, tents and lamps “are all stuck
in different stages, unable to now arrive”, she said,
before warning of “a significant deterioration of the
supply chain very, very quickly”.
The impact on
relief missions to Sudan is also of particular concern as
the humanitarian situation “is deteriorating very, very
quickly”, the IOM official continued.
“And of
course, the rainy season is just around the corner, coming
up, so, if we do not get the supplies in the next six weeks
to eight weeks, it’s going to be very, very difficult to
reach populations, especially in Darfur.”
Echoing
those concerns, the UN health agency’s Dr. Hanan Balkhy,
Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, confirmed
that much-needed supplies are not transiting through the
Strait of Hormuz. But she noted that flights were now
resuming from Dubai, which is a major logistics hub for the
entire humanitarian system.
Emergency healthcare
stymied
“We have more than 50 emergency supply
requests across 25 countries that have been affected by that
current pause,” Dr. Balkhy noted, including Lebanon, Yemen
and Somalia.
Back in Geneva, OHCHR’s Ms. Shamdasani
highlighted the plight of people in Afghanistan, where a
reported 66,000 people have been displaced there as a result
of the latest fighting with Pakistan.
“In Pakistan
as well, shelling and other fire has forced people to flee
their homes and civilians on both sides of this border are
now having to flee from airstrikes, heavy artillery fire,
mortar shelling and gunfire,” she
said.
