The Director of Lebanon at the World Food Program, Matthew Hollingworth, said: “We must do everything possible to prevent this from happening,” in a call from Beirut during a press briefing in Geneva yesterday, Tuesday.
The official expressed his concern about the similarities between Lebanon and Gaza, where he spent the first half of this year coordinating the program’s operations, in the midst of the devastating Israeli war that has been ongoing since October 7, 2023.
He said, “It never leaves my mind from the time I wake up until I go to sleep, that we may slip into the same spiral of death… We must not allow that to happen.”
On October 8, 2023, the Lebanese faction movement opened a “support” front for Gaza, and exchanged bombing with Israel across the border. The spiral of violence turned into a war of attrition on September 23, with Tel Aviv intensifying its air strikes on southern and eastern Lebanon and the southern suburbs of Beirut. As of last September 30, Israel began ground operations that it said were “limited” in the border areas in the south.
Hollingworth explained that many are fleeing “because they saw over the past year that the war in the Gaza Strip continued, and neighborhoods were destroyed and bombed, and this matter was deeply engraved in their souls, in their hearts, in their minds.”
James Elder, spokesman for the United Nations Children’s Fund, expressed his regret that “similarities are unfortunately present, such as displacement on the ground, the impact on children, or the language used… to soften the facts on the ground.”
Jeremy Lawrence of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights noted, “We are seeing the same patterns that we saw in Gaza… the destruction is beyond the ability of people in Lebanon to believe, as (was the case) in Gaza.” “We cannot let this happen again.”
While humanitarian agencies work to deal with the growing needs of the population, Hollingworth stressed that military “de-escalation” is what is required.
He revealed that while the Food Program is currently seeking to help about 150,000 people per day, it needs “at this stage to reach about one million people” per day.
He pointed out that fires resulting from the war destroyed 1,900 hectares of agricultural land in southern Lebanon over the past year, most of them during the past two weeks, while farmers abandoned about 12,000 hectares of productive land.
Hollingworth spoke of “very important needs” in the coming period, expressing his regret that the World Food Program suffers from a funding deficit of $115 million to cover the increasing needs during the next three months.
In turn, the World Health Organization counted 16 attacks targeting the health services sector in Lebanon since mid-September, resulting in the deaths of 65 health workers and the wounding of 40.
The organization’s official, Ian Clark, said in a video call from Beirut that five hospitals in Lebanon are out of service, while four are operating partially.
He explained that 100 health facilities were forced to close their doors, warning that with the reduction in health services, “we are facing a situation in which the risk of disease outbreaks is increasing.”
Source: Agencies
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