Lebanon: Fresh strike on Beirut suburbs ‘a very alarming development’

This is obviously a very alarming development,” UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said during his daily briefing from New York.

“We are deeply worried also about reports of civilians also being killed in the attack, and that also includes children.”

Call for restraint

The strike marked the first attack on Beirut since the 17 April ceasefire announcement between Lebanon and Israel, and its subsequent extension.

Mr. Dujarric reiterated the UN’s call on all parties to exercise maximum restraint and fully respect international law, including international humanitarian law.

New displacement orders were issued on Thursday for three villages in the South and Nabatieh Governorates, forcing more civilians to seek shelter elsewhere, the UN coordination office, OCHA, reported.

Overall, more than one million people in Lebanon remain displaced. This includes 126,000 people hosted in more than 600 collective shelters across the country, although most of those displaced remain outside formal shelters.

Support for civilians

Aid partners continue to assist civilians in conflict-affected and hard-to-reach areas, with 110 humanitarian movements facilitated since 2 March, when hostilities erupted between Hezbollah militants and Israeli forces.

Yet deliveries remain constrained by insecurity, movement restrictions, unexploded ordnance, and damaged infrastructure.

Despite the constraints, humanitarian partners have distributed more than 160,000 blankets, 120,000 mattresses as well as more than 100,000 hygiene kits and 50,000 menstrual hygiene kits.

The UN and partners also have provided more than 3.7 million litres of bottled water to people in need, and more than 65,000 cubic metres of water through trucking operations.

Concern for peacekeepers

Meanwhile, peacekeepers from the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) continue to observe “extensive military activities by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) throughout the area of operations,” said Mr. Dujarric, which includes high-density armoured movements, large-scale engineering works, and sustained logistical traffic.

“Peacekeepers also report significant firing incidents and projectile trajectories, most of which appear to originate from Israel Defense Forces positions,” he added.

UN peacekeepers and positions are being directly affected by the ongoing hostilities. Five ‘blue helmets’ have lost their lives since the fighting began.

“Once again, we stress that the safety and the security of our peacekeepers and the inviolability of our UN premises must be respected at all times by everyone,” the Spokesman said.