Delays hit Lebanese relief effort

Humanitarian aid did manage to reach the shattered town of Qana

Convoys carrying humanitarian aid for south Lebanon have been stranded in the capital Beirut and other towns, in the absence of safe passage guarantees.

Two World Food Programme convoys and four carrying International Committee of the Red Cross supplies were unable to proceed on Tuesday.

Aid officials say isolated communities in the south, where Israel is battling Hezbollah, are particularly vulnerable.

Bomb damage to roads and traffic jams hamper those convoys which do move out.

It is absolutely apparent that the Israelis don't let us into areas where they intend to engage in military activity Robin Lodge World Food Programme

Israeli bombardment has "systematically destroyed almost the entire road network", Mona Hammam, United Nations resident co-ordinator for Lebanon, told BBC News.

She told the World At One programme that the UN was asking for humanitarian corridors to bring in supplies.

"For each cargo there has to be a notification system to ensure that that road can be used and will not be targeted," she said.

Aid agencies' hopes rose on Monday after Israel declared a partial truce for humanitarian reasons but fighting continued in the south on Tuesday.

Some foreign aid has been entering Lebanon through Beirut airport and Tyre's sea port while UN aid has been arriving by land from Syria, through the Arida border crossing.

Family parcels

Annick Bouvier, spokeswoman for the ICRC in Geneva, confirmed that four convoys, each of between three and four lorries, had been unable to leave on Tuesday after failing to receive security assurances from the Israeli military.

Aid is currently handed over directly to local authorities

Two are stuck in the port of Tyre, where an ICRC cargo ship docked on Sunday, and the other two are in Marjayoun.

An ICRC lorry typically carries 500 "family parcels", each of which is designed to feed a family for a week, Ms Bouvier said.

There is also fuel for village water pumps, and sanitary aid and, once empty, the lorries are meant to evacuate civilians from the relief areas.

In a press release, the WFP said only one of three convoys intended for south Lebanon had been able to leave on Tuesday.

Amer Daoudi, WFP emergency coordinator, said frustration was mounting that people had been stranded without aid in the south for nearly three weeks, many of them poor, sick or elderly.

"We have no time to waste - they are running out of food, water and medicine," he added.

Long trip south

Robin Lodge, a WFP press officer, accompanied an aid convoy from Beirut to Tyre on Monday.

The journey took 10.5 hours instead of the usual 90 minutes because of damage to the main roads and traffic jams caused by the continuing movement of refugees.

On Tuesday morning, Mr Lodge was on the first WFP convoy from Tyre into Qana, where Israeli bombing killed at least 54 people in a house on Sunday.

Qana appeared deserted when the convoy's five lorries arrived but their cargo of flour and vegetable oil as well as medical and water purification supplies was delivered successfully to the municipal authorities, he told the BBC News website on his way back to Beirut.

The WFP, he said, would be happier to have non-governmental organisations helping with distribution but they had been hampered by problems of their own in obtaining clearance to operate.

No WFP convoys had so far come under attack.

Their movements were reported to the Israeli military and to Hezbollah, and the lorries were marked with UN symbols on their tarpaulin which should be visible to Israeli air pilots, Mr Lodge said.

Hezbollah had so far approved all WFP convoy requests, he added, while the Israelis had responded with a simple "Yes" or "No" without giving any reason.

"It is absolutely apparent that the Israelis don't let us into areas where they intend to engage in military activity," he said.

The WFP spokesman added that air drops of aid were a last resort and were not being contemplated in Lebanon at this time - nor was the option of delivering aid from the Israeli side of the border "feasible at this stage".

[Note: The number of people killed in the Israeli bombing of Qana was later revised. The Washington based human rights group Human Rights Watch investigated the incident and issued a report on 3 August saying that 28 people were known to have died, while 13 people were missing.]