By Beyza Binnur Donmez
GENEVA (AA) – The UN refugee agency UNHCR on Tuesday called for a cease-fire in Lebanon, calling it the "only way to end the nightmare" in the country.
"The needs are immense. They are growing daily, and we need the international community to now rally around the people of Lebanon and to be there for them in their hour of need," UNHCR Director Middle East Rema Jamous Imseis told a UN press briefing in Geneva.
"The only way this nightmare will end is if we have a cease-fire, and that is what the entire world is now hoping will happen in hours and not days," Imseis said optimistically, adding, "Because the people of Lebanon cannot afford it, and the region cannot afford a further spillover escalation of the conflict."
Israel has mounted massive airstrikes across Lebanon against what it claims are Hezbollah targets since Sept. 23, killing at least 1,542 people, injuring over 4,555 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 nearly 42,300 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.