World Food Programme launches emergency op to provide food for 1 million Lebanese

The World Food Programme says it launched an emergency operation to provide meals for one million people affected by the escalating conflict in Lebanon amid intensified fighting between Israel and the Hezbollah terror group.

“A further acceleration of the conflict this weekend underscored the need for an immediate humanitarian response,” the Rome-based agency says in a statement, announcing that it was distributing ready-to-eat food rations, bread, hot meals and food parcels to shelters across the country.

Israel on Sunday said that it was carrying out new airstrikes on dozens of Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, two days after killing the Iran-backed terror group’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

His killing marked a sharp escalation in nearly a year of tit-for-tat cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah that started when the latter began launching rockets and drones, one day after its Palestinian ally Hamas staged its unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.

The bombing in Lebanon is “compounding the fragility of a population burdened by accumulated crises,” the WFP says.

“In just a few days, WFP assistance has reached thousands of newly displaced people,” the program’s country director for Lebanon, Matthew Hollingworth, says in the statement.

“As the crisis deepens, we are preparing to assist up to one million people through a mix of cash and food support,” he adds, calling on the international community to mobilize $105 million to fund the operation through to the end of the year.

UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi has said “well over 200,000 people are displaced inside Lebanon” and more than 50,000 have fled to neighboring Syria.

Some 60,000 Israelis have been forced to leave their homes in northern Israel amid near-daily rocket and drone attacks by Hezbollah since October 8.