Syria offering refugee and aid to fleeing Lebanese

Thousands of Lebanese have fled to Syria to escape the Israel bombardment over the past week. At the main border crossings about 25 miles west of Damascus and over the course of a few hours, we saw a steady stream of Lebanese cars, trucks, pick-up trucks fleeing the fighting.

Officials at this border post say that over the last 24 hours at least 40,000 people had come across, and over the last week at least 100,000 people had come through that one border crossing — which is between east Lebanon and west Syria — so that’s not including any of the northern border crossings.

LIFE Syria is currently responsible for coordinating relief efforts and bringing food and essential items to the displaced Lebanese families who managed to find their way inside Syria. LIFE Syria in cooperation with the Lebanese Red Cross will supply displaced families with food packages that are able to feed a family of 5 or 6 for approximately 10-15 days. In addition, LIFE is collaborating with a local Lebanese NGO to supply IDPs stranded in the cities of Saida and Beirut with the same food packages. These two cities have been officially declared disaster areas.

Amidst the rising toll of internally displaced families and injured Lebanese civilians, LIFE for Relief and Development has also been working fervently to gather and commit as many resources as possible in aiding the distressed and internally displaced people (IDP) of various cities in Lebanon.

[MSN, Reuters]