Jan Egeland, the United Nations emergency relief coordinator, has said Lebanon needs over $100million to help civilians who have been hurt or displaced by the Israeli offensive.

Lebanon's only international airport, Beirut's Rafiq Hariri Airport, has been closed since Israel bombed its runways on the opening day of its offensive on July 13.

Egeland said: "Israel has given initial positive assurances that they want to work with us to establish these corridors but we still do not have a formal go ahead."
 

Israel lifted its sea blockade on Friday after Dan Gillerman, Israel's ambassador to the UN, said his country would open a humanitarian corridor for food, medicine and other supplies.

Israel criticised

Egeland also criticised Israel's military actions which have already killed at least 372 people in Lebanon.

The Israeli military response has been "disproportionate, when to my thinking one third of the wounded and killed are women and children, then it clearly goes far beyond responding to armed groups," he said.  

During the same period Hezbollah has killed 34 Israelis, including 15 civilians who died in rocket attacks on towns and cities in northern Israel.

Humanitarian aid

The international Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced it has opened a new logistics base in Larnaca, with warehousing space.

The base will handle all goods to be shipped by the ICRC to Beirut or other ports in Lebanon, and will begin receiving the materials on Sunday.

Gaza offensive

Egeland, who will visit Israel and the Gaza Strip on Tuesday and with Israeli officials, also expressed alarm over the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territory amid the Israeli offensive there.

Palestinian society is in "in its gravest hour of need in many years. We need a more effective relief effort there and we need Israel to enable the relief effort more effectively," he said.

Israel launched a massive air and ground assault in the Gaza Strip after Palestinian militants there kidnapped one of its soldiers in late June.