A/HRC/3/2 page 45 176. In all three cases described above, LRC was carrying out protection activities, as defined in the 1949 Geneva Conventions. The vehicles used were clearly marked with the Red Cross emblem and their operations were done in full respect of international humanitarian law rules. The Commission did not find any evidence showing that these attacks were linked in any way to Hezbollah military activities. The Commission finds, therefore, that all these incidents constitute a deliberate and unjustified targeting of protected medical vehicles and personnel. 177. The Lebanese Civil Defence was also the target of attacks by IDF.141 The Commission was informed that, during the armed conflict, one volunteer was killed and 59 other members of the Civil Defence were injured (11 staff and 48 volunteers). A total of 48 stations were damaged, as well as many vehicles.142 178. Beside direct attacks on medical and relief personnel, the Commission received various testimonies regarding the obstacles and difficulties the medical and humanitarian relief personnel had to face in carrying out their activities. The Commission received a number of testimonies from humanitarian organizations, hospitals and other medical centre personnel and from civilians confirming that access to civilians who needed medical care and humanitarian assistance was difficult and many times impossible due to IDF imposed constraints. 179. For example, WFP was confronted early in the conflict by serious movement and deployment limitations, including cases of close firings against its humanitarian convoys.143 Although no WFP convoy was directly hit, two security incidents occurred next to the same convoy on 6 August 2006. According to a WFP report “[O]n the way to Tyre, some 15 km north of the city, a van travelling in the opposite direction was hit by a missile, apparently fired from the air. Both occupants of the vehicle were killed. There was no damage or injuries to the United Nations convoy. As the empty trucks were returning to Beirut, another vehicle, some 30 meters ahead of the convoy, was hit by a missile. The driver, who was apparently alone in the vehicle, was killed.”144 In view of the difficulties to provide humanitarian assistance to civilians in need, the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator called for an end to attacks in Lebanon on civilian infrastructure and to measures which slowed down or hindered the distribution of humanitarian supplies to thousands of displaced persons.145 180. Further evidence of the difficulties faced by humanitarian agencies can be seen in the humanitarian cargo movement notification procedure.146 According to this procedure, no humanitarian convoy could move without the Israeli authorities’ express authorization (so-called “concurrence” mechanism). In fact, many convoys were not given authorization by IDF. In many cases, while authorization was granted, IDF bombed roads which, due to the advance notification process, it knew were to be used by the convoys. Consequently, numerous humanitarian assistance movements had to be cancelled. In a press communiqué released on 10 August, WFP stated that “a combination of 70 bridges destroyed and the denial of “concurrence on safety” by IDF for aid convoys was crippling efforts of WFP, on behalf of the entire humanitarian community, to organize overland transport of relief items, including food for one quarter of the Lebanese population displaced from their homes.”147 181. Efforts undertaken by humanitarian agencies to ease access for humanitarian relief but were often unsuccessful. On 28 July, the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator, Jan Egeland, called for a 72-hour pause in the fighting to facilitate aid efforts, but Israel rejected the call the following day.148 On 30 July, the Security Council also urged all parties to grant