UN scales up humanitarian assistance in Lebanon amid Israeli strikes
Attacks on healthcare continue, the office said, adding that earlier on Wednesday, authorities reported significant damage sustained by three government hospitals following Israeli strikes.
UNITED NATIONS, March 18 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations and its humanitarian partners continue to scale up assistance in Lebanon, providing food, shelter, water, medical care and nutrition support to families forced to flee their homes, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Wednesday.
"As of last night, according to the Ministry of Public Health, 912 people have been killed in Israeli strikes, with more than 2,200 others injured," OCHA said. "Overnight and into the early morning, Israeli strikes on central Beirut reportedly caused additional casualties. A multi-story building in the neighbourhood of Bashoura collapsed after being hit. Residential areas in the neighbourhoods of Zoqaq al-Blat and Basta were also struck."
More than one million people are now displaced, including 367,000 children, the office said.
The Israel Defense Forces on Wednesday instructed civilians to move north of the Zahrani River, after having issued displacement orders for the southern city of Tyre, including nearby Palestinian refugee camps.
Attacks on healthcare continue, the office said, adding that earlier on Wednesday, authorities reported significant damage sustained by three government hospitals following Israeli strikes.
The UN Refugee Agency and its partners distributed thousands of mattresses, sleeping mats, blankets, solar lamps and other supplies across collective sites in all of Lebanon's governorates.
The UN Children's Fund and its partners distributed thousands of hygiene and menstrual hygiene kits to shelters, as well as hundreds of thousands of liters of clean water.
More than 350,000 liters of fuel have been provided to sustain public water supply services.
On the nutrition front, partners have reached nearly 8,000 children under the age of five, adolescent girls, and pregnant and breastfeeding women with nutritional supplies for one month, the office added. ■