MIDDLE EAST: At the exact moment Israel's cabinet announced its acceptance of the UN Security Council ceasefire resolution yesterday afternoon, Israeli warships fired 18 bombs in quick succession into the devastated southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital. This was the heaviest single strike here since the war began a month ago.
Lebanese consuming a quiet lunch at one of the few restaurants still open in fashionable Hamra Street, paused in silent shock at the fact that Israel would deliver another massive blow to a deserted area bombed nearly every day. There was a fresh ex- plosion at dusk. Chief humanitarian co-ordinator David Shearer asserted, "The media must tell the world that Israel is deliberately targeting civilians."
At least 32 Lebanese civilians were killed over the weekend, 20 of them in south Lebanon.
On Saturday, shortly before the Lebanese cabinet voted in favour of the resolution and Hizbullah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah declared acceptance, Israel bombed the highway to the northern Syrian border crossing and the power plant at the city of Sidon, disrupting supply to areas in the south which still had a few hours of current a day.
UN envoy Alvaro de Soto said the deployment of 15,000 Lebanese army troops alongside an equal number of foreign soldiers bolstering the existing UN peacekeeping force could take a week to 10 days. Until then, fierce fighting is likely to continue.
If the ceasefire comes into effect today, UN officials co-ordinating the humanitarian aid programme with the Lebanese government expect Israel to end its attacks north of the Litani river and to lift its month-old blockade of Lebanese ports, airports and land routes.
Mr Shearer said that by halting normal traffic and limiting time for ships to unload in Lebanon's ports, Israel has been obstructing the flow of aid and fuel.
Hospitals and emergency services are on the brink of closing due to the lack of medical supplies and fuel.
Once the blockade ends, supplies can be brought from Cyprus. The UN plans to create four hubs for supplies to the main coastal cities of Tyre, Sidon, Beirut and Tripoli, where there will be offices, warehouses, and vehicles for distributing aid to the hinterland. A fifth hub will be established in Zahleh.
The humanitarian effort in the devastated south will have to wait until Lebanese and UN forces take control and Israeli soldiers withdraw. Once this begins, aid workers will deal with the situation pocket by pocket wherever there are no Israelis.
When supplies are ensured, aid agencies must tackle the Herculean task of getting more than 900,000 people to go back to their homes. But before they can even visit their property, experts will have to clear unexploded munitions.
Provision must be made for 50,000 Lebanese families who are hosting 500,000 displaced persons, and the 200,000 who have taken refuge in Syria must be brought home.
Lebanon's Council for Development and Reconstruction estimates that as many as 200,000 people may have no homes and that the bill for rebuilding the country's infrastructure could be $2.5 billion (€1.96 billion). Other sources predict that reconstruction costs could top $5 billion.