EU Urges Israel to Allow Aid to Reach South Lebanon
10 August 2006
The European Union's humanitarian aid commissioner is appealing to Israel to allow humanitarian groups to resume sending assistance to war-torn southern Lebanon, where tens of thousands of people face severe shortages of food, medicine and other basic supplies.
In a statement issued in Brussels Thursday The EU official, Louis Michel of Belgium, says conditions are deteriorating in both Lebanon and northern Israel, but the monthlong conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has left southern Lebanon in a particularly critical situation.
Michel is calling on both sides to respect international rules that limit the effects of an armed conflict on non-combatants. He intends to meet with senior Israeli and Lebanese officials when he visits the two countries next week.
The European Commission has committed $26million to relief work in Lebanon, and is proposing more funds in future.
Aid agencies say their most intensive efforts to deliver humanitarian relief have been paralyzed since Israeli air strikes shattered roads and bridges and cut off all access to the worst-affected areas of southern Lebanon.
The United Nations says the fighting between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas has displaced up to 900,000 people.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP.
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