By Ahmad Adil
NEW DELHI (AA) - India has dispatched humanitarian assistance to Lebanon, the Indian External Affairs Ministry said on Friday, as Israeli forces continued their attacks on the Middle Eastern country.
“A total of 33 tons of medical supplies are being sent. First tranche of 11 tons of medical supplies was dispatched today,” ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal wrote on X on Friday.
He said the consignment comprises a wide range of pharmaceutical products, including “cardiovascular medications, NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), anti-inflammatory agents, antibiotics and anesthetics.”
Over 1.2 million people are reportedly currently displaced in Lebanon, fleeing Israeli attacks or obeying its orders to evacuate, or both. International observers have decried the situation, saying the orders may be war crimes, and that such a massive displacement threatens a humanitarian catastrophe.
Israel since Sept. 23 has dramatically escalated its massive bombing campaign across Lebanon against what it claims are Hezbollah targets, 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 42,500 people, most of them women and children, since a Hamas attack last year.
Despite international warnings that the Middle East 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 an incursion into southern Lebanon.