BEIRUT: A plane carrying medical supplies from the United Nations arrived in Lebanon on Friday, a first since last week’s escalation between Israel and Hezbollah, a UN agency and a Lebanese minister said.
“An airlift… landed in Beirut earlier this morning with 30 metric tonnes of trauma and surgical supplies, enough to treat tens of thousands people,” the World Health Organization’s regional director Hanan Balkhy said on social media platform X.
She added that more flights are arriving tomorrow, carrying trauma supplies, cholera supplies, and mental health supplies.
Rapidly escalating Israeli strikes since September 23, have killed more than 1,100 people in Lebanon and injured hundreds more.
According to Lebanese authorities, the violence has also displaced more than one million people from their houses in the country, already facing economic and political crises.
Health Minister Firass Abiad received the aid at the Beirut airport on Friday. The assistance is provided by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UN refugee agency UNHCR and funded by the United Arab Emirates.
“We are receiving the first shipment out of many,” he said.
The consignment included many trauma kits that will be important to support the hospitals as they receive the casualties from the Israeli attacks on Lebanon.
