Diary: Aid stuck on the border

Astrid Van Genderen Stort is in Beirut for the UN's refugee agency

Aid agencies are trying to take advantage of the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah to deliver humanitarian relief to southern Lebanon.

Astrid Van Genderen Stort, spokeswoman for the UN's refugee agency, the UNHCR, describes the difficulties of getting supplies in.

Click here to see the first instalment of her diary:

Diary: Getting aid to Lebanon

SATURDAY 12 AUGUST

It seems to be getting worse here. Bombing overnight was fierce and guess what? No clearance given for the goods stuck at the Syrian border.

They were off-loaded from the trucks at a warehouse at the border on the Syrian side, in Al Aarida, and are now waiting to be loaded on to the Beiruti UN trucks. But when?

No clearance for the goods to cross into Lebanon yet

Bombing goes on throughout the day and when a bomb hits the northern route along the coast line again - the route that was hit a week ago, where three bridges were bombed - I fear the worst. This could really mean the end of that route, one of our main pipelines.

In the meantime the French ship the Cap Camarat is on its way from Marseille with 2,000 tonnes of emergency aid, after having been given a grand farewell by the French foreign minister on Friday.

The boat is expected to arrive in Beirut on 16 August. Inshallah!

Two UN ships are approaching Beirut, but my logistics colleagues are grumbling.

The boats have to stop 65 nautical miles out to sea for the night, outside Lebanese waters and close to Israeli vessels, and are only allowed in for off-loading during the day time.

The first boat is not coming in until midday tomorrow, so we only have five hours for customs and off-loading. It is not enough at all, it will take days.

Time-wasting

They are also annoyed as the plane from Amman did not arrive in time and the extra material could not be loaded on the vessel. A loss of time. We need goods.

The Israelis dropped air fresheners with the face of Hezbollah's leader

E-mail did not work half of the day. Our logistics man went through the roof as this is how he receives much needed information, such as contracts and way bills.

We tried to go to the mountains north of Beirut to distribute goods to the displaced, but it was unsafe, we were told.

The Israeli planes today dropped green carton cedar tree air fresheners with the face of Nasrallah on. They say "leave us with a good smell".

People fear leaflets, they normally bring bad news - more bombs, a warning to leave the area. Today the pilot must have been bored.

SUNDAY 13 AUGUST:

I wake up at 7am with Kofi Annan on TV. Hostilities are planned to end at 8am local time, Monday (tomorrow) morning. A ceasefire, can it be true?

There is a desperate need for supplies in southern Lebanon

Bombs continue to fall. Around lunchtime 23 explosions go off within a few minutes in southern Beirut. The noise is incredible. More dead, more injured?

I hate these attacks, especially on highly populated areas where thousands and thousands of people live. An announcement by leaflet telling people to leave and that is that. Can the old leave? The injured? The ones who did not find a leaflet?

We sit together and plan for the return of the displaced. We need to pre-position supplies, we need many more relief items soon, if people can really return as of tomorrow.

In the meantime the ships are being off-loaded and the goods are still stuck at the Syrian border (even though the northern route access did not get completely destroyed as I feared yesterday).

Unexploded bombs

I get worried as I am sure there will be people who will return immediately after the ceasefire, and I fear for ongoing fighting but more than that, for unexploded ordnance still lying around.

Apparently 10% of the bombs, missiles and projectiles are unexploded and these are lying around the houses that have been destroyed.

The wait for relief to come across the border is excruciating

We decide to go on five Arab TV channels and warn the people to be very careful, especially to tell their children not to play with strange objects around the house.

Loud explosions when I sit on the terrace late at night. The "Grande Finale" before the end or will there be no end? Everyone seems exhausted around me. This conflict has lasted a little more than a month now. It seems much longer.

Before I fall asleep I watch the news. The countdown has started: seven-and-a-half hours until the ceasefire. The whole south of Lebanon seems on fire, so many explosions.