Israel's overnight bombing of highway bridges in northern Lebanon and strikes at a Hizbullah stronghold in south Beirut paralysed aid convoys as relief workers warned of a worsening humanitarian crisis.
Israeli jets destroyed three bridges on the main coastal highway linking Beirut to Syria, stalling an eight-truck convoy carrying food, shelter material and other aid to the estimated 900,000 Lebanese displaced by the three-week-old war.
Astrid van Genderen Stort, senior information officer for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees
Astrid van Genderen Stort, senior information officer for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, said the bombing had shut down the major relief
route for supplies travelling to the hardest-hit areas in the south
The bridge at Maameltein, just north of Beirut, was split along its centre by a huge crater. Further north another lay stretched out in the valley it once spanned.
"The whole road is gone," Ms van Genderen Stort said. "It's really a major setback because we used this highway to move staff and supplies into the country. If we don't have new material coming in, we will basically be paralysed."
The UNHCR was also forced to postpone trips around Beirut to assess the needs and deliver aid to up to 400,000 people living with host families or in schools and parks in the area.
The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) called off planned convoys southwards to the port city of Tyre and Rashidiyeh after bombing in a southern Beirut suburb prevented drivers from reaching the convoys' launch point.
A third planned convoy carrying food, water and sanitary supplies to the city of Jezzine departed as planned but humanitarian workers said lack of access to hoards of refugees was deepening the humanitarian crisis.
UN agencies also warned a looming fuel shortage could bring electrical power plants, hospitals and water pumping stations to a halt, exacerbating already poor sanitation among thousands living in crowded conditions and raising the risk of epidemics.