UN official appeals for Lebanon's ports and airport to be spared as Israel presses its offensive

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UN official appeals for Lebanon's ports and airport to be spared as Israel presses its offensive

2024-10-13 01:49 Last Updated At：01:50

BEIRUT (AP) — A top United Nations official said during a visit to Beirut Saturday that he is concerned that Lebanon's ports and airport might be taken out of service, with serious implications for getting food supplies into the county, as Israel continues its offensive against the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

“What I have seen and heard today is devastating, but the sense is that this can get much worse still, and that needs to be avoided,” said Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the U.N. World Food Program, in an interview with The Associated Press.

He appealed for “all diplomatic efforts possible to try to find a political solution” to the war and for supply lines to remain open.

“We have huge concerns and there are many, but one of them is indeed that we need the ports and we need the supply routes to continue to be able to operate,” Skau said.

In Gaza, where Israel has been at war with Hamas since the Palestinian militant group launched a deadly incursion into southern Israel a year ago, hunger has skyrocketed as humanitarian organizations have complained of major obstacles to getting food and other supplies into the blockaded enclave.

Skau said he believes that Israeli authorities had given “commitments” that in Lebanon, the ports and airport would not be taken out of commission.

“But of course, this is a very changing environment. So we don’t take anything for granted,” he said.

In recent weeks, Israel has escalated its aerial bombardment and launched a ground invasion in Lebanon.

About 1.2 million people are displaced in Lebanon, according to government estimates, of whom some 200,000 are staying in collective shelters, where the WFP is supplying them with meals.

Skau noted that food prices have already increased as a result of the conflict, although Lebanon's sole international airport and its main sea ports are still functioning. The WFP had stocked up enough food to supply 1 million people -- about one-fifth of Lebanon's population -- for up to a month, he said, but now is trying to build up supplies that could feed that number through the end of the year.

“We will, of course, be having to restock, and for that, the ports will be critical and other supply lines,” he said.

For instance, the agency has been bringing food in from Jordan through Syria into Lebanon by land, he said. Earlier this month, an Israeli strike on the road to the main border crossing between Lebanon and Syria cut off access to that crossing.

Since the Masnaa crossing was struck, people fleeing Lebanon have continued to cross on foot, while vehicles -- including those bringing supplies for the WFP -- have had to use another crossing in the far north of the country, making the journey more arduous and expensive.

Skau appealed for the Masnaa crossing to be reopened.

Lebanese General Security, which oversees border crossings, has recorded 320,184 Syrians and 117,727 Lebanese citizens crossing into Syria since Sept. 23, when the major escalation in Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon started.

The influx comes at a time when the WFP has reduced its food assistance in Syria as a result of funding shortages.

“We’ve gone over the past two years from assisting some 6 million people to around 1.5 (million),” Skau said. “And with that, of course, our capacity has been tightened and now we need to scale up again.”

Floridians evacuated for Hurricane Milton after wake-up call from devastating Helene

2024-10-13 01:42 Last Updated At：01:50

BRANDON, Fla. (AP) — Floridians recovering from Hurricane Milton spent much of Saturday searching for gas, with lines snaking around stations as a fuel shortage gripped the state.

In St. Petersburg, scores of people lined up at a station that had no gas, hoping it would arrive soon. Among them was Daniel Thornton and his 9-year-old daughter Magnolia, who arrived at the station at 7 a.m. and were still waiting four hours later.

“They told me they have gas coming but they don’t know when it’s going to be here,” he said. “I have no choice. I have to sit here all day with her until I get gas.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters Saturday morning that the state opened three fuel distribution sites and planned to open several more. Residents can get 10 gallons (37.85 liters) each, free of charge, he said.

“Obviously as power gets restored ... and the Port of Tampa is open, you’re going to see the fuel flowing. But in the meantime, we want to give people another option,” DeSantis said.

Officials were replenishing area gas stations with the state's fuel stockpiles and provided generators to stations that remained without power.

The fuel shortage comes as residents, many of whom fled hundreds of miles to escape the hurricane, were making the slow trips home on crowded highways.

Milton killed at least 10 people when it tore across central Florida, flooding barrier islands, ripping the roof off the Tampa Bay Rays ′ baseball stadium and spawning deadly tornadoes.

Officials say the toll could have been worse if not for the widespread evacuations.

“I love my house, but I’m not dying in it,” Fred Neuman said Friday while walking his dog outside a rest stop off Interstate 75 north of Tampa.

Neuman and his wife live in Siesta Key, where Milton made landfall Wednesday night as a powerful, Category 3 hurricane. Heeding local evacuation orders, they drove nearly 500 miles (800 kilometers) to Destin on the Florida Panhandle. Neighbors told the couple the hurricane destroyed their carport and inflicted other damage, but Neuman shrugged, saying their insurance should cover it.

Nearby, Lee and Pamela Essenburm made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at a picnic table at the crowded rest stop. Their home in Palmetto, on the south end of Tampa Bay, had a tree fall in the backyard. They evacuated fearing the damage would be more severe, worrying Milton might hit as a catastrophic Category 4 or 5 storm.

“I wasn't going to take a chance on it,” Lee Essenbaum said. “It’s not worth it.”

The still-fresh devastation wrought by Hurricane Helene just two weeks earlier likely helped compel many people to flee.

“When people see firsthand what can happen, especially in neighboring areas, it can drive behavior change in future storms,” said former Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Craig Fugate.

In the seaside town of Punta Gorda, Mayor Lynne Matthews said rescuers only had to save three people from floodwaters after Milton passed, compared with 121 rescues from Helene's flooding.

“So people listened to the evacuation order,” Matthews told a news conference Friday, noting that local authorities ensured residents heard them. “We had teams out with the megaphones going through all of our mobile home communities and other places to let people know that they needed to evacuate.”

Overall, more than a thousand people had been rescued in the wake of the storm as of Saturday, DeSantis said.

On Sunday, President Joe Biden will survey the devastation inflicted on Florida’s Gulf Coast by the hurricane. He said he hopes to connect with DeSantis during the visit.

The trip offers Biden another opportunity to press Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson to call lawmakers back to Washington to approve more funding during their pre-election recess. It’s something Johnson says he won’t do.

Biden is making the case that Congress needs to act now to ensure the Small Business Administration and FEMA have the money they need to get through hurricane season, which stretches through November in the Atlantic. The president said Friday that Milton had caused $50 billion in estimated damages.

DeSantis welcomed the federal government's approval of a disaster declaration announced Saturday and said he had gotten strong support from Biden.

“He basically said, you know, you guys are doing a great job. We’re here for you,” he said when asked about his conversations with Biden. “We sent a big request and we got approved for what we wanted.”

As the recovery continues, DeSantis has warned people to be cautious, citing ongoing safety threats including downed power lines and standing water.

By midday Saturday, some 1.5 million Floridians were still without power, according to poweroutage.us. St. Petersburg’s 260,000 residents were told to boil water before drinking, cooking or brushing their teeth, until at least Monday.

National Weather Service Meteorologist Paul Close said rivers will “keep rising" for the next four or five days resulting in river flooding, mostly around Tampa Bay and northward. Those areas were hit by the most rain, which comes on top of a wet summer that included several earlier hurricanes.

“You can't do much but wait,” Close said of the rivers cresting. “At least there is no rain in the forecast, no substantial rain. So we have a break here from all our wet weather.”

Farrington reported from St. Petersburg. Associated Press journalists Chris O'Meara in Lithia, Florida; Curt Anderson in Tampa; Terry Spencer outside of Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Stephany Matat in Fort Pierce, Florida; Freida Frisaro in Fort Lauderdale; and Rebecca Santana in Washington contributed.