Church aid worker: Lebanese need humanitarian corridor for survival

Published: 2006-07-20

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- A humanitarian corridor is needed in Lebanon or hundreds of families will die, said a church aid worker. The corridor -- a protected artery for the transportation of humanitarian supplies -- is the only way to replenish diminishing supplies to Lebanon, said Issam Bishara, Catholic Near East Welfare Association's regional director based in Beirut, Lebanon. Bishara spoke with Catholic News Service July 20 from his home in Beirut after attending a meeting with the staff of the New York-based association. Together with the Lebanese Red Cross and the government's High Relief Committee, the association was trying to accommodate the half-million people uprooted from their homes in the south. The displaced Lebanese are sheltered in schools, Bishara said, noting that because so many Lebanese live in small apartments, families could not stay with other families. He said aid agencies were "not well-prepared to accommodate the families," and the displaced need showers and water tanks. Bishara said he could not assess the situation of Lebanese trapped in the south because it is too dangerous. "Israelis will shell any trucks passing by," he said. "Israel already shelled a medicine convoy with 24 ambulances and a truck full of medicine on the way to be distributed" in southern Lebanon.

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