(Adnkronos) – Some 30 tonnes of essential items for over 1,500 families forced to flee their homes in war-hit Lebanon, including kitchen sets, blankets, hygiene kits and jerry cans, arrived at Beirut airport aboard a flight from the United Nations logistics hub in Brindisi, southern Italy on Thursday, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The aid will be delivered to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR)’s local office, which will distribute it, “in close coordination with the Lebanese authorities, to familes throughout Lebanon, as well as to host communities, where humanitarian needs continue to grow,” said the statement.
The airlift, arranged by the foreign ministry’s overseas aid agency and UNHCR, came in response to the grave humanitarian situation Lebanon, where over a million people have been left homeless by Israeli air strikes this month in retaliation for attacks launched against the Jewish state on 2 March by pro-Iran militant group Hezbollah.
The flight represents a tangible sign of the Italian government’s solidarity with Lebanon’s war-hit populations and a concrete contribution at a particularly difficult time for the country, according to foreign minister Antonio Tajani, cited by the statement.
The flight, which departed from the United Nations Humanitarian Response Depot (UNHRD) in Brindisi, landed at Beirut airport.
Tajani requested the airlift, in agreement with deputy foreign minister Edmondo Cirielli, the statement noted.
