(Lebanon) Hospitals lack fuel, may shut

[maddezmom]

Published: Sunday, 6 August, 2006, 11:44 AM Doha Time

BEIRUT: Hospitals treating thousands of wounded in Lebanon have fuel for only one more week and many will have to close if Israel keeps up a blockade on the country, the health minister warned yesterday.

"Hospitals only have fuel for one more week, some even less. Many of them will have to close if fuel shipments continued to be blocked," Mohamad Khalifeh said.

"This is a pressing question, and it is alarming. We are engaged in contacts with all concerned parties to resolve this crisis," he said.

Lebanese officials have accused Israel, which has been blockading Lebanon’s airports and ports for three weeks, of refusing to allow the shipment of much-needed fuel, particularly for power plants.

more:http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=101015&version=1&template_id=37&parent_id=17

CNNI has been running a story about this all morning. :(

[Ghost Dog]

1. Now the main highway is bombed we have a major, major setback

Aid agencies have warned of difficulties in delivering supplies to hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the fighting, after four bridges on the main coastal highway north from Beirut were destroyed on Friday.

"Now the main highway is bombed we have a major, major setback... it's like a de facto blockade at the moment," Astrid van Genderen Stort, spokeswoman for the UN refugee agency told the BBC.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5248868.stm

related DU thread: "Israel wages war of starvation" - http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1827977

...And please don't forget the same or worse in Gaza, people.