BEIRUT: A large UN aid convoy arrived in the southern Lebanese port of Tyre yesterday and aid workers said they planned to step up deliveries to an area devastated by Israeli bombardment. The convoy of 10 trucks carrying 90 tonnes of food and basic medical supplies travelled from the capital Beirut down a so-called humanitarian corridor, a route cleared with Israel beforehand to ensure the vehicles were not bombed. "We hope this is the tip of the iceberg," said Khaled Mansour, UN spokesman in Lebanon, after the gruelling six-hour drive to Tyre. "We got here so it means the system is working, the humanitarian corridor is working."
Young men unloaded the trucks, lugging sacks of wheat flour on their backs and stashing them in the underground parking lot of a bank. Meanwhile, a Jordanian plane landed at Beirut international airport yesterday in the first airlift of urgently needed aid for blockaded Lebanon as deliveries of assistance started to reach thousands of displaced people in the besieged south. |