‘We need respect for international humanitarian law’
The UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Lebanon says crucial needs for people under Israeli fire in the country include water, food, and safe shelters.
“It’s absolutely catastrophic. It’s gone on for almost a year now and the level of needs in the last 10 days is dramatic. We’re talking about one million people displaced and defected,” Imran Riza told Al Jazeera.
He noted about 1,000 people have been killed in the past two weeks with the number of health workers dying in Israeli attacks surging by 50 percent.
“On the one hand we need resources, on the other we need access – safe access – and here we need respect for international humanitarian law. We need people to be able to move safely to us, and for us to be able to move to those who can’t.”
A man holds up a damaged helmet worn by civil defence workers following an Israeli raid on central Beirut on Thursday
Bank of England governor warns of oil shock risk
The governor of the Bank of England has warned that a major conflict between Israel and Iran would make it impossible to keep oil prices stable and expose the global economy to a shock similar to what happened some five decades ago in the wake of the October 1973 Arab-Israeli War.
“Geopolitical concerns are very serious,” Andrew Bailey told British newspaper The Guardian. “It’s tragic what’s going on. There are obviously stresses and the real issue then is how they might interact with some still quite stretched markets in places.”
Bailey said since the start of the war a year ago, there had not been a big spike in crude prices.
“From the point of view of monetary policy, it’s a big help we haven’t had to deal with a big increase in the oil price. But obviously, we’ve had that experience in the past, and in the 1970s, the oil price was a big part of the story.
“Obviously, we keep watching it. We watch it extremely closely to see the impact of the latest news. But … my sense from all the conversations I have with counterparts in the region, is that there is, for the moment, a strong commitment to keep the market stable,” he added.
“There’s also recognition there’s a point beyond which that control could break down if things got really bad. You have to continuously watch this thing, because it could go wrong.”
Israel attack on Lebanon ‘severely weakens’ recovery prospects
S&P Global Ratings says Israel’s military action in Lebanon “severely weakened” recovery prospects for Lebanon’s already fragile economy.
The ratings agency said the surge in fighting and attacks in Lebanon could persist into next year and also spread to other parts of the country.
“The loss of human lives, damage to infrastructure, rising fiscal costs of war, population displacement, and declining tourism revenue, alongside changing political dynamics given the weakening of Hezbollah, will put severe pressure on Lebanon’s economy,” S&P said in a media release.
“It will also further delay economic and financial reforms, and the longer-term recovery of fiscal and external accounts.”
Smoke rises from the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Thursday
