BEIRUT: Carl Skau, the deputy executive director of the UN World Food Programme, said he is concerned that Lebanon’s ports and international airport might be taken out of service amid Israel’s ongoing attacks, which would restrict the amount of food entering the country, Al Jazeera reports.

“What I have seen and heard today is devastating, but the sense is that this can get much worse still, and that needs to be avoided,” he told The Associated Press during a visit to Beirut. “We have huge concerns and there are many, but one of them is indeed that we need the ports and we need the supply routes to continue to be able to operate.”

Israeli authorities have given “commitments” that ports and airports would not be taken out of commission in Lebanon, Skau said, but he said Lebanon “is a very changing environment” and he doesn’t “take anything for granted”.

Earlier this week, Lebanon’s transport minister said the country had received “assurances” but not guarantees that Israel would not target its only international airport, located in the southern suburbs of Beirut.