More than half of Lebanon’s population depends on humanitarian aid, a European Union official said yesterday, as Israel continues its attacks on the country despite a ceasefire in the two-month-long war with militant group Hizbollah.
“At present, more than three million people, meaning more than half of the population here in Lebanon, depend on humanitarian aid to survive,” EU crisis management chief Hadja Lahbib told reporters after meeting Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in Beirut.
Lahbib said that since the start of the war on March 2 the 27-member bloc has provided 100 million euros in aid and sent six planes carrying humanitarian aid, with a seventh expected on Saturday.
Israeli strikes in Lebanon have killed more than 2,700 people and displaced more than one million since early March, according to authorities.
The UN launched an emergency appeal in March for $308 million in humanitarian aid for Lebanon, but in two months it has raised just $126m, according to UN agencies.
Lahbib, who said that the ceasefire has opened ‘a narrow window of hope’, called for Hizbollah ‘to cease its attacks and be disarmed’ and said that ‘Israel must put an end to its bombardments’.
“For a ceasefire to lead to peace, courage is needed – political courage to address the root causes of this conflict.”
Israel and Lebanon are set to hold a third round of talks in Washington next week to end the war, despite Hizbollah’s opposition to direct negotiations.
Aoun told a visiting delegation from the European Union that European countries should pressure Israel to commit to the ceasefire and abstain from ‘detonating and a bulldozing” homes in villages under Israeli occupation. Aoun added in comments released by his office that Lebanon is committed to the ceasefire in order to start negotiations that will end the current conditions.
Yesterday, Israeli air strikes on southern Lebanon killed at least five people, while Hizbollah fired rockets on northern Israel without inflicting any casualties.
The Health Ministry in Lebanon said that an Israeli air strike on the southern village of Toura near the port city of Tyre killed four people and wounded eight. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported another air strike near the southeastern village of Kfar Chouba, saying it killed a paramedic with the Lebanese Civil Defence.
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