Lebanon aid stalled, UN slams strikes on civilians [video report]

BEIRUT - Aid agencies were unable to reach tens of thousands of people trapped by heavy fighting in southern Lebanon today as the United Nations condemned Israeli attacks on civilian targets in the country.

An Israeli air strike on the edge of a UN-run refugee camp near the southern city of Sidon today killed two people, bringing to at least 75 the number of civilians killed by air strikes this week, with scores wounded.

"We strongly condemn the attacks on civilians," said Astrid van Genderen Stort, spokeswoman for the refugee agency UNHCR. "They have nowhere else to run to."

Israeli bombardments and ground incursions have so far killed around 1,000 Lebanese, the vast majority civilians, drawing widespread criticism from the international community.

Israel says the offensive is the only way it can stop Hizbollah guerrillas from firing rockets into northern Israel which have killed nearly 50 people in the 29-day conflict.

Earlier in the day top Israeli ministers approved a decision to expand the offensive in Lebanon, a move which UN agencies said would worsen a humanitarian crisis believed to have displaced 750,000 people in Lebanon already.

>> Reuters video: Israel approves expanding conflict

"Should this expanded military operation take place, that would cause even greater suffering than we have at present," said Robin Lodge, spokesman for the UN World Food Programme.

Aid agencies said their efforts to get to southern Lebanon had stalled for a second successive day after Israel imposed an indefinite ban on movement south of the Litani river, saying it could attack any vehicle not in an approved convoy.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said it had received no "security concurrence" to rebuild a makeshift bridge across the Litani -- the last major crossing to the port city of Tyre and the rest of the south -- after Israel destroyed it on Tuesday.

"We've been given to understand there's no point in our even applying for clearance to travel down to Tyre... in the next couple of days," Lodge said.

"The earliest we could get there would be on Friday, and that's assuming we could find a route across the Litani."

The United Nations said two planeloads of supplies from Jordan had been delayed, but that seven aid flights from China, the UAE and Yemen had arrived at Beirut's airports.

The relief group Mercy Corps said it was repositioning aid material closer to southern cities after having to call off convoys because their destinations were under attack.

It said that aid groups were having to switch from sending dry goods south because people had run out of cooking fuel -- part of a larger crisis which the Health Ministry said yesterday would force hospitals to close in two or three days.

The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said that, although Israel had told people to flee south Lebanon, many were too poor or too frightened to leave their villages.

"When our teams visit villages, which is becoming very, very difficult in itself, even if they look empty there's always civilians left -- 10, 50, or maybe 500 in bigger towns," said MSF spokesman Bart Rijs.

He said the agency had been forced to stay put in recent days but would like to resume operations despite the curfew imposed by the Israelis.

"We haven't tried to test it yet, but we would like to move out of Tyre again tomorrow," he said.

- REUTERS