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Truckers stay off roads for fear of being targeted by warplanes Lebanon Daily Star / Raed El Rafei | July 28 2006 BEIRUT: The transportation industry in Lebanon has taken a direct hit from Israeli fire and affected more than 20 percent of the country's economic activity, according to Chafic Kassiss, the head of the truck drivers' syndicate. "Israel has so far targeted more than 450 trucks, both those on the roads and those parked," Kassiss told The Daily Star on Thursday. An Israeli air raid Wednesday night destroyed three pickup trucks witnesses said were carrying vegetables in the mountain resort town of Dhour Choueir, north of Beirut. "Targets range from picks-ups transporting 300 kilograms of materials to big trucks moving 40 tons of supplies," the syndicate president said. Of the estimated 170,000 transport trucks and pick-ups in Lebanon, only 200 are still on the road carrying basic necessities and relief supplies, he added. The government is conducting negotiations with
the United Nations to secure "humanitarian corridors" across
the country to allow the flow of much-needed aid, said Abdel-Hafik al-Kayssi,
the director general of the Marine and Land Transport Department. "We are deciding on specific routes on which trucks could transport aid materials safely," Kayssi added. The government has yet to hear back from the UN on the issue, he said. In the meantime, aid supplies are being transported by private and military trucks despite the fact they continue to come under Israeli fire. "Few truck drivers, despite the fact that they are willing to risk their lives, are still agreeing to drive their vehicles," Kassis said, adding that the intentional targeting of the means of civilian transportation is banned by international law. Israel has targeted trucks of all shapes and sizes throughout the country, arguing that the vehicles are being used by Hizbullah to transport weapons. "They even hit two empty trucks in Achrafieh that had been parked for a long time," he said. ---------------------------------------------------
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