The director of a southern Lebanese orphanage which has a long association with the Irish Defence Forces and has received funding from the Irish Government, yesterday described how the children in his care and other orphanage staff are running out of food in Beirut.
Hassan Fawaz, a former principal translator with the Defence Forces, also said 28 of his charges had been forced to live for almost two weeks in a small bunker formerly used by Irish troops. The orphanage which he runs is located in the town of Tibnin, close to the Defence Forces' former battalion headquarters at Camp Shamrock.
Mr Fawaz was speaking on RTÉ Radio's Gerry Ryan show, which yesterday initiated an appeal for funds to help Mr Fawaz and the residents of the orphanage.
A fundraising bank account to help Mr Faraz and the children of the orphanage has been set up through Bank of Ireland.
In another development, a Kilkenny-based father was reunited at Dublin airport yesterday with his two young children, who were evacuated from Lebanon on Monday, writes Hélène Hofman.
Munier Zabad, whose father is Lebanese, had been living in Sierra Leone and came to Ireland about four years ago seeking asylum. He was granted refugee status on humanitarian grounds last year.
His son Ali (7) and daughter Gadier (5) arrived with their grandmother, Rosaline (57), on a British Airways flight from London just before 8am and were taken to a private room to meet their father.
Mr Zabad last saw his son when he was six months old and had never met his daughter until yesterday. When the civil war in Sierra Leone escalated, he sent his pregnant wife with their son to live with his mother Rosaline in Lebanon. His wife sought to divorce him soon after and left the children with his mother. She remarried and is believed to have returned to Africa.
Mr Zabad said he was "very happy" to have the children with him in Ireland, but admitted the initial meeting was "strange". "They have come from a different place, they have come out of war, but now they're in a safe place," Mr Zabad said. He had been seeking to have his children evacuated since last week, and has been talking to them by telephone regularly since the conflict began.
It is understood that neither of the children has passports and the Department of Foreign Affairs has confirmed that the Lebanese authorities were initially reluctant to let them leave. However, following the intervention of the department, the children and their grandmother (a British-passport holder) were given passage on a German ship bound for Cyprus on Monday.