Three hospitals in south Lebanon have stopped operations because of fuel shortages and power outages due to the conflict between Israel and the Hezbollah, a United Nations spokesman said.
"The level of fuel reserves in Lebanon as a whole is a matter of concern, the UN is in contact with Israeli authorities to allow fuel tankers to come to Lebanon," spokesman Khaled Mansour said by telephone from Beirut.
Thousands of people are fleeing southern Lebanon today, heading north, taking advantage of a lull in Israeli air strikes that is due to end at 2 a.m. tomorrow, he said. The number of people displaced across Lebanon is in the range of 700,000 to 900,000, or one-fifth of the population, he said.
"The humanitarian situation is dire, there are people that have been isolated in villages for nearly three weeks that we cannot reach," he said.
The UN's World Food Program said in a statement that Israeli forces today allowed only one of three convoys access to villages in southern Lebanon to deliver food and items sent by the UN Children's Fund.
"According to one humanitarian organization working in Lebanon, a food crisis is looming in the south, where a severe shortage of water is prompting people to drink from animal ponds that are contaminated with bacteria," the WFP said, without identifying the organization.
To contact the reporter responsible for this story: Maher Chmaytelli in Nicosia through the newsroom in London or mchmaytellibloomberg.net
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