Aid agencies are struggling to get supplies into southern Lebanon, prompting fresh warnings from UN officials of a deteriorating humanitarian situation in the region. A shipment from Medecins Sans Frontieres was stalled after an Israeli air strike cut off access to the southern port of Tyre. Locals were drafted in to carry boxes of vital food and medical aid across the river - in defiance of Israeli authorities.
"We notify Israel of our movements, but for example this convoy has not been authorised," an MSF coordinator said. "We told them it was a medical emergency, and asked to be let through. They told us the route is blocked, but we're chancing it all the same."
The shipment will make it to its destination. But with so much of southern Lebanon's infrastructure in tatters, the lifelines have been cut for many of the 900,000 people displaced by the conflict.

PHOTO CAPTION

A worker from the aid organization Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders, carries medical supplies intended for southern Lebanon after crossing the Litani River north of the port city of Tyre, southern Lebanon, Monday, Aug. 7, 2006. (AP)