ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Iraqi Red Crescent Society has sent 150 tons of food supplies and aid to Lebanon since the start of the Israel-Hezbollah conflict, state media reported on Tuesday.
“Since the start of the Zionist attack on Lebanon, the society reached out to the Lebanese Red Cross to send some food and relief aid,” Ahmed Abdulamir Abdulrahman, the director of the disaster management department of the Iraqi Red Cross Society, told state media al-Sabah.
“The [Red Crescent] society sent 150 tons of food supplies and 34,800 blankets to Lebanon through the Red Cross,” he added.
Abdulrahman said the Red Crescent has established a field hospital and a logistic center at the al-Qaim border crossing, to provide medical emergencies for those Lebanese citizens that arrive in Iraq.
Since the start of the conflict, Iraq has opened its doors to Lebanese refugees fleeing from the conflict.
Last week, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani approved the allocation of three billion dinars (about $2.27 million) to the migration ministry to assist Lebanese refugees arriving in the country.
Iraq officially labels Lebanese citizens fleeing the conflict as "guests of Iraq."
Karim al-Nouri, undersecretary for the Iraqi ministry of migration and displaced, told Rudaw on Monday that the funds will be used to “provide household supplies, basic necessities, and logistical support, as the Lebanese have arrived in Iraq empty-handed.”
About 8,000 Lebanese citizens have arrived in Iraq since the start of the conflict, according to Nouri, who added that the refugees are being settled in the Baghdad, Karbala, Najaf, and Salahaddin provinces.
Since the start of the conflict, Israeli bombardments have killed 2,255 people and injured 10,524 others in Lebanon, according to data compiled by the Lebanese health ministry. Nearly a quarter of the population, 1.2 million people, have been displaced, Lebanon's caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said earlier this month.
