Expansion of Lebanon war delays cease-fire, UNRWA chief warns

By Yakoota Al Ahmad

ISTANBUL (AA) - An expansion of the war in Lebanon hinders efforts to reach a cease-fire, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees warned Sunday.

“I’m just back from Lebanon where people live in fear and anxiety,” UNRWA Commission-General Philippe Lazzarini said on X.

“Hundreds of thousands of people, the vast majority of them women and children, have been forced to flee in search of safety.”

Lazzarini said UNRWA teams are working around the clock to provide people in Lebanon with basic assistance, including psychological relief for children.

“The expansion of the war into Lebanon is taking us away from reaching a ceasefire needed for a respite of civilians across the region,” he warned.

“It’s time for leaders to show courage and put an end to the spiraling human tragedy across the region.”

On Saturday, French President Emmanuel Macron held talks over the phone with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to discuss efforts to end Israeli attacks in Lebanon, according to the Lebanese state news agency NNA.

Israel has mounted massive airstrikes across Lebanon against what it claims are Hezbollah targets since Sept. 23, killing at least 1,437 people, injuring over 4,123 others, and displacing more than 1.34 million people.

The aerial campaign is an escalation from a year of cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of its offensive on the Gaza Strip, in which Israel has killed more than 42,200 people, most of them women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.

Despite international warnings that the Mideast was on the brink of a regional war amid Israel’s relentless attacks on Gaza and Lebanon, it expanded the conflict on Oct. 1 by launching a ground incursion into southern Lebanon.

*Writing by Ikram Kouachi in Ankara