UNITED NATIONS, July 22 (UPI) -- The head of U.N. humanitarian aid, Jan Egeland, will travel to Lebanon and Israel, including the Gaza Strip, to assess the toll of the ongoing conflict.
Egeland departed Friday from New York, after briefing the U.N. Security Council on the humanitarian consequences of the conflict.
As fighting enters its second week, the humanitarian situation is deteriorating with every passing hour, Egeland told reporters. The Lebanese side reports more than 330 dead, many of them civilians, and as many as a third of them children. The Israeli side, which reports 34 killed, has been regularly terrorized by a rain of Hezbollah rockets.
The number of people in Lebanon uprooted -- now estimated to be 500,000 -- is likely to double as the fighting persists, Egeland said.
The principal impediment to humanitarian assistance has been access, Egeland said. Roads are impassable, bridges have been blown up, and the airport outside of Beirut is in ruins. While in Israel, Egeland will negotiate plans to open five humanitarian corridors into Lebanon in order to deliver aid to the civilian population.
Egeland also noted that he has not had or sought direct contact with Hezbollah, the Shiite militant group whose incursion into Israel precipitated the Israeli offensive, and which remains firmly entrenched in southern Lebanon and Beirut.
Egeland has consistently condemned the unlawful targeting of civilians, whether by Hezbollah fighters taking refuge in the homes of Lebanese civilians to fire at non-military targets in Israel, or Israel's counter-offensive to those attacks, which disproportionably target civilians.
Egeland urged cautious action, in line with international humanitarian law, on both sides.
"Many are doing things they will regret tomorrow," he said.
