A CONVOY of Irish UN soldiers travelled from south Lebanon to Beirut and back yesterday with food and medical supplies for the thousands of people, from the poorest sections of a poor region who were unable to flee northwards from the Israeli bombardment.
Defence Forces headquarters reported that the Irish Battalion area was relatively free of Israeli shelling yesterday and the troops were able to provide assistance to people who have remained in the area over the past nine days of bombardment.
Irish UN troops were reported to be shocked and angry at the shelling of the Fijian Battalion headquarters at Qana, where 101 civilians were killed on Thursday by Israeli shelling.
The Israeli claim that they were aiming at Hizbullah members who fired Katyusha rockets from a site 300 metres from the Fiji base was seen as a virtual admission that the base was always within killing range of the shelling. Shrapnel from the 155mm shells fired by the Israelis has the potential to kill within a 350 metre radius of the impact.
Makeshift rockets used by the Hizbullah were unlikely to have sufficient range to reach Israel from Qana. So far, there have been no fatalities in Israel as a result of the Hizbullah attacks.
The Irish medical unit which went to assist at Qana was back in the Irish Battalion area yesterday helping local people, including an elderly woman who had been trapped in a bombed house since Wednesday in Shaqra.
Humanitarian relief became the major feature of the Irish and other UN battalions yesterday as local people who had been hiding in their houses were forced to emerge looking for food and medical assistance.
There is now a severe shortage of food and other supplies in the area because of the massive population displacement in southern Lebanon where an estimated 400,000 people fled from the bombardment to the southern suburbs of Beirut.
The Irish Battalion is highly experienced in providing assistance for the civilian population in south Lebanon and has suffered 14 losses in action during its 18 year presence in the area.
The last Irish fatalities were in the 1980s. Seven of the Irish soldiers were killed by Israeli fire and seven by other factions including the pro Israeli South Lebanon Army (SLA), Amal and Hizbullah.
The Irish Battalion remained on duty throughout the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 when there were thousands of casualties and during the Lebanese civil war up to the mid 1980s.
The battalion also withstood the August 1993 Israeli bombardment of south Lebanon which resulted in more than 100 civilian deaths and led to 250,000 people fleeing north from the region.