LEBANON: Israel has destroyed the last main crossing over Lebanon's Litani river and has imposed an indefinite ban on movement in the south, paralysing humanitarian efforts to reach thousands trapped there, aid groups said.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said yesterday it was forced to carry four tonnes of medical aid and fuel over a tree trunk spanning the Litani after an air strike hit a makeshift bridge on the coast road leading to the southern port city of Tyre.
"The supply road for humanitarian supplies and medical material has been reduced to a tree trunk," said MSF spokesman Bart Rijs. "As far as we know, there is no other way across.
Air strikes and artillery pounded Tyre and its outskirts as the workers crossed the river with surgical kits and generator fuel, badly needed as heavy fighting in the south had increased the flow of wounded to hospitals in the city.
Israel's army warned residents south of the Litani river to stay inside after 10pm last night and said anyone moving after that would be at risk, an Israeli military source said. The United Nations humanitarian co-ordinator David Shearer has condemned Israel's "wanton bombing" of civilian targets.
Humanitarian groups say the bombing and a naval blockade have prevented them from helping many of the estimated 900,000 displaced by the war.
"The deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure is a violation of international law," Mr Shearer said.
"It is endangering our lives and the lives of our staff, but equally it is endangering the lives of the people who are at risk and need this humanitarian aid."
The UN's World Food Programme sent a truck convoy south from Beirut to Sidon.
Another 11 trucks brought supplies from Syria along a slow, difficult route after Israeli jets on Thursday destroyed four bridges on the coastal highway north of Beirut, previously the main aid conduit.
Aid groups are still struggling to understand the scope of what they have termed a humanitarian crisis in southern Lebanon. The United Nations believes a fifth of the area's 120,000 residents are still there.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said bombed-out roads had slowed one of its convoys right down near the southern border, where a surge in fighting has pushed a new stream of refugees north to Beirut and its surrounding hills.
Humanitarian workers said more than 500,000 displaced people had filled available shelters and were putting pressure on supplies of food, water and money in the region around Beirut. - (Reuters)