OCHA Situation Report No. 7
Lebanon
29 July 2006


Egeland calls for 72-hour truce

The UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, Jan Egeland, today called for a 
72-hour truce between Israel and Hezbollah to allow desperately needed 
aid into southern Lebanon and to ensure medical assistance is made 
available for the injured. Addressing the UN Security Council on the 
humanitarian situation in the Middle East, Egeland noted the urgent need 
for the ICRC, the Lebanese Red Cross, and the UN and its partners to 
relocate children, the wounded, the disabled and the elderly who have 
not been able to escape the fighting in the worst war zones. He added 
that hospitals and health centers, particularly in the South, needed to 
be re-supplied with emergency medical relief items and fuel provided for 
generators to avoid a complete breakdown of public health facilities. 
Also urgently needed, he said, are water and sanitation facilities, 
food, and other basic supplies for the tens of thousands of displaced 
who are seeking shelter in public buildings in the conflict zones, as 
well as an emergency communication system to allow the aid community to 
better address acute needs.

Online information centre for Lebanon launched

OCHA has launched a virtual Humanitarian Information Center (vHIC) 
website for Lebanon in order to provide immediate Information Management 
(IM) products and services concerning the situation in the region.  An 
OCHA IM Officer arrived in Beirut today and will be joined by a second 
over the weekend. They will perform generic information management 
support functions and work as part of the OCHA Team under the overall 
guidance of the RC/HC, taking into account the need to feed data and 
information to the vHIC in New York/Geneva. The two person team will 
also work with the humanitarian community on the ground to identify 
information management requirements, including the possibility of a HIC 
deployment. The vHIC can be accessed at www.virtualhic.org. Submissions 
for posting information can be sent by email to vhic@un.org. This email 
address can also be used to contact the vHIC team.

SITUATION OVERVIEW

Figures provide by the Government's Higher Relief Committee now place 
the death toll at approximately 600 people and 3,225 injured, the great 
majority civilians. Lebanese authorities warn, however, that hundreds of 
bodies might still lie under the rubble of destroyed buildings. The 
number of affected people is still estimated at 800,000 people, 
including internally displaced, individuals under siege, refugees, and 
asylum seekers. Press reports indicate that 51 Israelis have died in 
nearly two weeks of conflict in Lebanon. Some 115,000 Third Country 
Nationals (TCNs) from some 20 countries remain trapped in Lebanon.

Security

Security Phase IV remains across the country. Heavy exchanges of fire 
continued with increased intensity along the length of the Blue Line in 
the past 24 hours. Hezbollah fired a larger number of rockets from 
various locations, and the IDF intensified the shelling and aerial 
bombardment. The IDF has maintained their presence inside Lebanese 
territory in the area of Marun Al Ras, Bint Jubayl, and Yarun in the 
central sector.  Intensive aerial bombardment was also reported in the 
general area of At Tiri, Brashit, and Tibnin, north of Bint Jubayl. 
There were two direct impacts on UNIFIL positions from the Israeli side 
in the past 24 hours, as well as five other incidents of firing close to 
UN positions.

UNIFIL provided humanitarian escort and transportation to a group of 278 
Lebanese civilians from UNIFIL Headquarters in Naqoura to Tyre 
yesterday. This morning, UNIFIL provided a humanitarian escort and 
transportation to a group of 332 Lebanese civilians from a Ghanaian 
battalion position in Al Duhayra to Tyre. Another humanitarian escort is 
planned for today to transport 112 civilians from a Ghanaian position in 
the area of Alma Ash Shab to Tyre.

Humanitarian situation and International response

Following the success of the first UN relief convoy from Beirut to Tyre, 
two more UN aid convoys departed Beirut today heading to the cities of 
Sidon and Jezzine. The 8-truck convoy for Jezzine carried 90 MT of WFP 
wheat flour, 15 tons of canned meat and critical non-food supplies such 
blankets and shelter materials from Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF). The 
10-truck convoy for Sidon carried 18 MT of food including six truckloads 
from UNRWA for Palestinian refugees in camps. The convoys also carried 
critical medical and shelter materials being delivered on behalf of 
UNDP, UNHCR, UNICEF and WHO. Another UN aid convoy is scheduled for 
Sunday, 30 July, security conditions permitting.

Today, WFP dispatched its first airlift using an Ilyushin-76 aircraft. 
The first delivery from the UN humanitarian depot in Brindisi includes 
20 temporary warehouses and five generators for WFP. The aircraft will 
land in the Syrian town of Latakkia, from where supplies will be 
transported overland to Al-Arida, a Syrian border post that is WFP's 
loading hub for all UN humanitarian supplies to be transported by road 
into Lebanon on UN-escorted convoys. Another flight is planned for 
tomorrow.

UNHCR is also planning to send convoys from Syria into Lebanon early 
next week with 500 MT of emergency relief supplies. The agency is also 
exploring land, sea and air routes to get greater quantities of relief 
supplies into Lebanon. UNHCR is setting up a supply base in Larnaca, 
Cyprus and is examining using the port of Mersin in southern Turkey to 
ship supplies to Beirut. In Lebanon, the agency is buying and 
distributing relief items locally while waiting for the supplies from 
Syria to arrive. UNHCR has set up a small office in the city of Homs 
with two mobile teams working from that base to better monitor arrivals 
at three northern border points.

A Jordanian Military aircraft carrying UNICEF and WHO supplies arrived 
into Beirut at 13:30pm today. The supplies (provided by the UNICEF Iraq 
Support Centre in Amman) included some 10,000 packs of water 
purification tablets (over 500,000 tablets) and 250 family water kits. 
The flight also carried 150kg of medical supplies for WHO. A second 
flight is planned for Monday carrying the remaining 350 family water 
kits and 200,000 doses of Vitamin A.

The UN has now established a Humanitarian Cargo Coordination Center 
(HCCC) in Beirut. The center has developed the appropriate procedures to 
facilitate the safe delivery of humanitarian relief materials into and 
throughout Lebanon. These procedures have been developed in consultation 
with the Government of Lebanon and with the support of UNTSO and UNSCO 
in Jerusalem who are in turn working together with the Government of 
Israel (IDF and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) to ensure the 
establishment of humanitarian corridors for the delivery of these relief 
materials.

IOM yesterday successfully relocated some 70 Ghanaians from Beirut to 
Syria. The group is scheduled to leave on commercial flights under IOM 
assistance to Accra on 30 July 2006. Today, an IOM charter plane from 
Damascus transported a group of over 300 Sri Lankan nationals to 
Colombo. This movement was arranged in coordination with Caritas who 
transported the Sri Lankan nationals to Syria. For Sunday, 30 July, IOM 
is working to secure seats for the remaining Bangladesh nationals.

The UNJLC yesterday deployed three staff to Cyprus, Syria and Beirut. 
Several more staff are expected to travel to Beirut and Syria in the 
course of next week. Contracts are being issued for a period of three 
months. The main base of UNJLC will be Beirut with an additional support 
office to be located in Larnaca, Cyprus.

The WHO today circulated a list of "Who does What where" which will map 
the major health responses by agency and location in Lebanon. The 
organization also launched today (1) a communicable disease risk 
assessment and interventions document outlining the major threats in the 
emergency-affected population based on their epidemiological profile, 
and (2) guidelines on disease surveillance/ early warning and response, 
including reporting templates, case investigation forms and case 
definitions for diseases. A mission from the WHO Regional Office for 
Europe visited Cyprus for contingency planning with the national health 
authorities, UN agencies and other partners in case of a sudden influx 
of refugees as a result of the crisis.

The ICRC sent out an appeal today for 100 million Swiss Francs to 
strengthen its humanitarian operations which are being carried out 
together with its partner the Lebanese Red Cross. The ICRC has now 
expanded its presence in Beirut, Tyre and Marjayoun and has been 
travelling to villages close to the border to deliver aid and facilitate 
medical evacuations together with the Lebanese Red Cross. The funds 
requested will serve to expand health programmes and support medical 
facilities serving 650,000 people, as well as to help treat up to 5,000 
war-wounded. The ICRC will also increase its deliveries of food and 
other essential relief items for at least 200,000 residents and 
displaced people.

The American NGO International Medical Corps continues to provide 
essential medical supplies in and around Tyre, supporting the Hiram 
Hospital and four Palestinian refugee camps in southern Lebanon. The 
four camps house approximately 40,000 Palestinian refugees and 30,000 
Lebanese who have been displaced since the surge in hostilities earlier 
this month. All camps are facing supply shortages as 47 bridges 
connecting Beirut to southern cities including Tyre and Saida have been 
destroyed. The IMC has also organized mobile clinics to address the 
immediate needs of the internally displaced in and around Tyre.

The Caritas Lebanon Migrant Center (CLMC) has begun an Emergency 
Operation for migrant workers in need of assistance in the country. 
CLMC has started coordinating and collaborating closely with IOM and the 
Sri Lankan Embassy for the evacuation of some 5,000 Sri Lankan nationals 
from Beirut to Damascus, and onward home. The Sri Lankan government has 
plans to charter an airplane to Damascus to fly the displaced 
expatriates to their home country.

Funding update

More governments have made pledges to the US $149 million UN Flash 
Appeal for Lebanon 2006 which was launched on 24 July. To date Canada 
has pledged C$5.5 million, Finland 1 million euros, Ireland 
300,000euros, New Zealand NZ$500,000, Japan US$2 million, Germany 1 
million euros, Trinidad and Tobago US$30,000, USA US $7.4 million, 
Luxembourg 625,000 euros, Australia A$3 million, Sweden US$4.6 million, 
and Singapore US$50,000. The total amount thus far pledged stands at 
approximately US$ 33.5 million.  Further pledges expected to be 
announced soon by other donors, including Denmark, Norway, Spain and UK. 
The EC (ECHO) also announced the total amount of 60 million euros for 
humanitarian assistance and allocations should be decided soon.

This situation report, together with additional information on the 
current crisis is also available on http://www.reliefweb.int. As your 
tool for timely information sharing, please encourage submissions of 
documents and maps by email to submit@reliefweb.int.

Contact Details:

Desk Officers:
  (New York) Mr. Carlos Monteiro-Pereira, Tel:  +1-212-963-4639
  (New York) Mr. Ben Negus, Tel:  +1-917-367-4374
  (New York) Ms. Heidi Kuttab, Tel:  +1-917-367-33 65

Press contact:
  (New York) Ms. Stephanie Bunker, Tel:  +1-917-367-5126


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