(PNS/ENS) — Church relief agencies were pleading July 25 for an urgent cease-fire so emergency assistance can be provided to hundreds of thousands of civilians uprooted and threatened by Israeli bombarding of Lebanon and Hezbollah attacks on Israel.
“The humanitarian crisis in Lebanon is reaching catastrophic levels,” said the Geneva-based Action by Churches Together International saying the Middle East Council of Churches had set up an emergency council to deal with the calamity and destruction in Lebanon.
“The indiscriminate targeting of the civilian population and infrastructure, disregarding all lines, is preventing relief workers reaching the affected villages and towns,” the Beirut-based church council reported. “The attacks have destroyed villages and towns in south Lebanon as well as the southern suburbs of Beirut. Most of the communication networks are disrupted delaying the efforts to save the wounded and remove the dead from under the collapsed buildings.”
More than 300 people had been killed in Lebanon and around 40 in Israel as of the second week of hostilities. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on July 20: “There may be 500,000 conflict-affected people.”
