UN says still waiting Israeli aid guarantee

Beirut, July 24: The United Nations is still waiting for Israel to guarantee safe passage of aid to areas of Lebanon hardest hit in 12 days of bombardment, the UN emergency relief coordinator said yesterday.

Jan Egeland said until Israel gave a green light for aid corridors to south Lebanon, the United Nations and other agencies would not be able to help ''hundreds of thousands in their hour of greatest need''.

Israel has pledged to let ships carrying aid to berth in Beirut, which it has blockaded for nearly two weeks, but Egeland said the crucial issue was distribution within the country.

''What is desperately needed is to get it down south,'' he told Reuters in an interview after he spent a day in Beirut visiting a hospital, touring a Shi'ite district flattened by Israeli strikes, and talking to aid organisations.

He said relief was not reaching those who needed it most because ''we don't have access. It's either too dangerous or it's physically impossible to get there because of the destruction''.

Civilians have borne the brunt of the war, triggered by Hizbollah's abduction of two Israeli soldiers on July 12. At least 368 people have been killed in Lebanon, and 37 in Israel.

The Lebanese government says half a million people have been displaced. Many others have been left isolated by air strikes which destroyed bridges and roads and cut off supplies.

The Israeli army said in a statement today it would facilitate transfer of international aid inside Lebanon.

''Humanitarian aid will arrive on ships through the Beirut port and from there will be transferred to regional aid centres across Lebanon, in coordination with the army, under the supervision of the Red Cross,'' it said.

Egeland said Israel had offered ''positive initial verbal responses'' to the UN request to allow aid convoys to move safely in Lebanon, but had not yet given its agreement.

''We hope to get it immediately,'' he said.

'Disproportionate attacks'

Egeland, who is due to visit other parts of Lebanon affected by the fighting before leaving for Israel, said yesterday at least 100 million dollars would be needed over the next three months to avert a humanitarian disaster. He said today the figure would definitely be higher.

He repeated his criticism of Israeli air strikes, saying they were ''totally disproportionate'' and a violation of international law.

''After having spent the day of seeing how massive the destruction of civilian infrastructure is, including in southern Beirut where whole blocks have been destroyed, seeing many children wounded in hospital, there should be no doubt in anybody's mind that this is a war where civilians pay the price much more than armed groups or soldiers,'' he said.

''Hundreds have already died. Many many more will die if we do not get a cessation of hostilities.'' Egeland criticised Hizbollah for firing waves of rockets into Israel, and its tactics of ''blending into the population'', but he said in response Israel had launched excessive bombing of civilian infrastructure.

''You cannot say that because there are some who send missiles from a territory, that all civilian facilities for the whole population in the country should be destroyed,'' he said.

Reuters