JamzNG Latest News, Gist, Entertainment in Nigeria
“Civilians in southern Lebanon and parts of the Bekaa [Valley] truly living with the same fear for their lives as before the armistice and many more are forced to flee…many of the refugees are not even allowed to return by the Israeli army in areas it controls in the south,” said Karolina Lindholm Billing, UN refugee agency (UNHCR) Representative in Lebanon.
Since April 17, at least 380 people have died despite a ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel, the agency said.
Additionally, homes and public services have suffered “widespread damage” across much of the country, affecting hundreds of thousands of people, UNHCR officials said.
He described meeting with families who tried to return to their homes in Nabatieh and Tire after a US-brokered ceasefire took effect, only to find fighting and chaos.
“They were even more devastated than before after seeing the incident the house was completely destroyedLindholm Billing explains. “One guy, he showed me a photo of his house that had been demolished on his phone. And he was now back in a sleeping bag on the floor of a classroom that served as a collective shelter with no place to return to and a very uncertain future.”
Paramedics are not targets
Civilians and emergency workers are protected under international humanitarian law, however this does not prevent targeting of non-combatants who live in fear of being killed every day.
“I want to convey one clear message from the Lebanese Red Cross volunteers: they are asking for protection,” said Tommaso Della Longa, spokesman for the UN partner, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). While visiting volunteer paramedics in Lebanon last week he said that “every time they went on an ambulance mission, they hugged each other and said goodbye to each other, unsure if they would come back safely.”
In the past two months, two Lebanese IFRC paramedics have been killed or died from injuries suffered while responding to calls in southern Lebanon: Youssef Assaf and Hassan Badawi.
“In a normal world, Red Cross volunteers don’t need flak jackets or helmets in ambulances, the insignia should protect them,” said Mr. Della Longa. “But this is not a normal world. In Lebanon, Youssef and Hassan were killed while saving lives. The emblem did not protect them, nor did their protective equipment.”
Massive upheaval
Across Lebanon today, around 1.8 million people have been forced to flee as a result of the war between Hezbollah and Israeli fighters, which erupted again on March 2 when the Israeli military responded to Hezbollah rocket fire, three days after Israel and the US began bombing Iran.
According to UNHCR, thousands of people remain in Israeli military-controlled areas in southern Lebanon. UN humanitarian convoys continue to provide aid to people in hard-to-reach areas south of the Litani River. “But access is a challenge” for aid teams and securing people’s basic needs is still very difficult, explained Ms. Lindholm Billing.
“Families forced to leave their homes speak not only of loss but also of their dignity being taken away,” emphasized IFRC’s Della Longa. He explained that restoring people’s dignity “is at the heart of this response”.
Providing assistance is important, but so is “listening, engaging communities and enabling them to support each other”, he said, adding that the ceasefire “has not restored norms or livelihoods, nor guaranteed basic needs such as water, food or health services”.
