The UN said this Tuesday that a million people need help to meet your vital needs in Lebanonwhere the destruction of agricultural land or its abandonment by families displaced by Israeli bombing anticipates a considerable loss of food production.
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Since the attacks began – a consequence of the confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah – the UN World Food Program has provided daily 150,000 hot meals or rations for between five and fifteen daysdepending on people’s ability to cook, the organization’s director in Lebanon, Matthew Hollingworth, said by teleconference from Beirut.
“But this must increase. We have to reach, at this moment, almost a million people a day,” he indicated.
The organization has proposed reaching that number of people in the next three months, although it noted that its budget to meet its objective currently has a deficit of 115 million dollars.
Hollingworth maintained that there is deep concern about the country’s agricultural production, after the burning of 1,900 hectares in the southern region (border with Israel) and the abandonment of another 12,000 located in one of the most productive areas because the families that they worked the land They have been displaced.
But this must increase. We have to reach, at this moment, almost a million people a day
In the impacted lands, olives were largely grown, as well as citrus and fruits, crops that will not take place and will take decades to recover, particularly in the case of olive trees, declared the humanitarian representative.
The situation is even more disturbing to the extent that Lebanon is a country strongly dependent on the food import.
The representative of the World Food Program said he was shocked by the level and speed of the destruction suffered in Lebanon, where there are 1.2 million people affected and numerous regions and cities have been completely emptied of their inhabitants and have been left in ruins.
A total of 973 shelter locations (schools and other educational centers or public buildings) have been created in Beirut and the north of the country, but, with more than 200,000 people registered In them, the majority is already at capacity.
Regarding the fear that Israeli attacks will reach the Beirut airport and leave it out of service, Hollingworth stressed that this infrastructure is very important for the supply of humanitarian aid, for the arrival of humanitarian and medical personnel, as well as an exit route for Lebanese who wish to leave the country.
The consequences would be unpredictable in a country that does not produce enough to be self-sufficient and that also does not have reserves so that vital facilities, such as hospitals, can continue functioning, he added.
In this sense, he urged that both air and land corridors be preserved as they are the entry routes for essential supplies such as fuel, food and health products.
‘People in Lebanon terrified of becoming a second Gaza’
People in Lebanon are terrified at the prospect of becoming a second Gaza and their country failing to emerge from the current spiral of armed violence.
“The Lebanese deeply fear that their country will become another Gaza and it is for this reason that so many have left the southern regions and gone to Beirut or the north,” the director of the World Food Program said by teleconference from Lebanon. for this country, Matthew Hollingworth.
Hollingworth acknowledged that it is a fear that he himself has, after having worked in Gaza the first half of this year and witnessing the “spiral of doom” that took over this territory, where almost 42,000 people have died in a year of bombings. Israelis.
The Lebanese deeply fear that their country will become another Gaza and it is for this reason that so many have left the southern regions and gone to Beirut or the north.
“Diplomats and political leaders must avoid the worst outcome,” he pleaded.
A spokesman for the UN Human Rights Office in Geneva acknowledged that “the same patterns seen in Loop are now being observed in Lebanon, with a horrendous impact on civilians“.
In this sense, the UN insisted that in accordance with international humanitarian law, Israel must respect the principles of distinction (between civilians and its military targets), proportionality (of its attacks) and military necessity, making both civilians and Civil infrastructures are protected.
Similarly, Unicef ​​spokesman James Elder, who has carried out multiple missions in Gaza in the last year, warned that Israel is using in Lebanon the same language that it used with Gaza at the beginning of its offensive, when it claimed that it was carrying out attacks “limited”.
According to United Nations calculations, depending on the food supplies in question, they are currently left in Lebanon. reservations for between two weeks and two and a half months.
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