Brussels, 17/07/2006 (Agence Europe) - In response to the unfolding tragedy in the Middle East, development commissioner Louis Michel announced on Monday that the Commission was making €5 million available for possible humanitarian aid in Lebanon. “Innocent people are suffering and we have a duty to ease that suffering as quickly as possible,” says Mr Michel in a press release, indicating that funding decisions have to be based on proper needs assessment. It is very difficult, he says, to obtain reliable information about displace civilians, the numbers of injured and the sectors where urgent relief is required. By earmarking these €5 million of aid, he says, we can reassure our implementing partners - UN agencies, NGOs and the Red Cross/Crescent - “that support will be speedily available to finance their emergency relief operations”. He goes on, “The warring parties must surely recognise that everyone loses, the longer the fighting goes on. They must provide secure humanitarian corridors” for relief organisations.