Hezbollah Presents Challenges for Relief Groups

International relief agencies have had a difficult time helping residents of some of the harder-hit areas of southern Lebanon, where the militant group Hezbollah controls access to such assistance, reports The New York Times.

Mercy Corps and other groups are banned from giving aid or money through Hezbollah because the United States considers it a terrorist organization. But Hezbollah remains the best equipped group to distribute aid, and relief organizations recognize that some of their assistance may be traveling through the group already, the paper reports.

“Unicef has been here, and Mercy Corps and other groups,” Ahmad Zogby tells the Times. His house and his parents’ home were destroyed. “But everything coming in, Hezbollah puts an eye on it, makes sure it is all given out in the proper way. It is all in the hands of Hezbollah.”