OCHA says Israel's evacuation orders in southern Lebanon place 'additional strain' on relief efforts

By Muhammet Ikbal Arslan

GENEVA (AA) - The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Friday said that Israel's evacuation orders in southern Lebanon place "additional strain" on relief efforts.

The new evacuation orders for areas above the Litani River and areas such as Al-Bass, which hosts a Palestinian refugee camp, are forcing even more families to flee from areas previously considered safer, spokesperson Jens Laerke said in a written response to Anadolu's question.

"With displacement shelters already full and hosting large numbers of people, host communities receiving these new arrivals are overwhelmed," Laerke stressed.

"The orders are also placing additional strain on national relief workers and humanitarian organizations, as access becomes more difficult - and resources to provide shelter, food, and medical care are increasingly stretched thin," he added.

On Thursday, the Israeli army ordered the residents of 25 towns in southern Lebanon to evacuate their homes and head north of the Litani River.

Israel has launched massive airstrikes since Sept. 23 on what it calls Hezbollah targets across Lebanon that have so far killed more than 1,100 people, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.

The aerial campaign was an escalation in a yearlong conflict between Israel and Hezbollah since the start of Tel Aviv’s brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip that has killed nearly 41,800 people, mostly women and children, since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas in October last year.

At least 1,974 people have since been killed, over 9,384 injured and 1.2 million others displaced, according to Lebanese authorities.

The international community has warned that Israeli attacks in Lebanon could escalate the Gaza conflict into a wider regional war.