A statement from MAG Chief Executive Darren Cormack on the ceasefire in Lebanon:
We welcome the announcement of a 10-day ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon as an important and overdue step and have this morning deployed our specialist teams to help keep people safe as they return to their devastated communities.
The humanitarian cost of what has been one of the most intense periods of cross-border conflict in recent years has been high, with more than one million Lebanese displaced, hundreds killed and thousands injured.
The war has also seen the extensive and indiscriminate use of explosive weapons in populated areas in a serious breach of the fundamental principles of humanitarian law, with civilians, including children, often paying the highest price through death, lasting psychological trauma and life-changing injury.
Even without further conflict, the scale of the destruction inflicted on communities in Lebanon, including on essential civilian infrastructure, will have a long term impact on the health, safety and security of the population.
Our teams in the country – where we have worked for almost 25 years – are already delivering campaigns to help keep people safe from the risks posed by unexploded ordnance. Whilst we are only hours into the ceasefire, there have already been reports of civilians injured after encountering unexploded ordnance, highlighting the peril faced by returnees and the importance of risk education for communities.
Despite the extreme hardship they themselves have endured, our colleagues have deployed this morning to distribute safety advice leaflets along main highways covering Damour, Saida, Deir Zahrani, Nabatiyeh, and West Bekaa. A digital risk education campaign, using social media to spread safety messages, was launched last night.
With a prolonged ceasefire, we can begin the long task of helping communities rebuild, working with our partners to find and make safe the unexploded missiles, rockets and shells that will be lodged in the rubble of towns and villages, and enabling communities to take their first steps on the long road of post-conflict recovery.
It is essential, therefore, that the international community brings the maximum pressure to bear to ensure the ceasefire is permanent, enabling urgently needed humanitarian access, and commits to sustained and significant support for reconstruction and recovery for the millions of people whose communities have been devastated, not just by the last 48 days of war, but by the decades of conflict that came before.
