[wvns] Fleeing Palestinian children speak of horrors
Fleeing Palestinian children speak of horrors
By Weedah Hamzah
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
monstersandcritics.com.
Nahr al-Bared, Lebanon - The Palestinian children who fled in recent
days the Nahr al-Bared camp which was pitted by violence between the
Lebanese army and Muslim militants, have horrific stories to tell.
'I cannot sleep at night now, I cannot eat, I am just afraid,' said
Rania Hamed, an eight-year-old Palestinian refugee who fled on Tuesday
the Nahr al Bared camp on foot with her family.
The pale-faced girl was just too weak to speak and her mother Rima
expressed concern about her.
'I'm worried about Rania, she lives in constant fear,' the mother said.
'I'm afraid that one of the family will die in this war,' Rania said.
The plight of the Palestinian refugees of Nahr al-Bared started on
Sunday when an al Qaeda-linked group called Fatah al-Islam, who are
positioned in the camp, attacked posts for the army at the outskirts
of camp.
The army shelled the camp heavily after the group killed and
slaughtered 31 soldiers.
'The sound of the shelling was too loud, we were hiding in a small
room at the entrance of our house, with around 25 people, we could not
breathe,' said Ahmed, Rania's brother.
'The shrapnel from the shelling was hitting the room we were hiding
in, at least three of us were hit,' he said.
'I wake up at night sometime with the sound of women screaming in my
ears,' said Ahmed.
Ahmed and Rania are currently refugees at the nearby Palestinian camp
of Bedawi camp, in northern Lebanon.
They and their neighbours as well as others from the Nahr al-Bared
camp are now living in schools.
Some 30,000 of the original 40,000 residents of Nahr al-Bared have
fled since a fragile ceasefire came into effect Tuesday night.
According to UNICEF officials, the displacement has weighed heavily on
the Palestinian children.
'The Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and UNICEF
has a priority to ensure that most urgent needs of children and women
are met,' UNRWA spokeswoman Huda Samra told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa
According to Palestinian sources, UNICEF, UNRWA and their NGO partners
are now focusing on the safety of children and their families still in
Nahr al-Bared.
'As of May 25, an estimated 10,000 civilians remain in the embattled
camp with only sporadic humanitarian support during very brief
ceasefire periods. The safety of children and families still living in
the camp and their access to humanitarian aid must become the first
priority for all parties,' Dr Omar Kenan from inside the camp of Nahr
al-Bared refugee camp told dpa by phone.
'Five schools inside Baddawi camp have stopped classes and turned into
displacement centres for refugees, where families are sleeping on
mattresses in extremely crowded conditions,' Samra said.
Hundreds more families are staying with friends and relatives who were
already living in crowded apartments in Baddawi camp. Others are
living in guesthouses and centres within the camp, and more than 1,000
refugees have left northern Lebanon to other Palestinian refugee camps
in other parts of the country.
There are some 367,000 Palestinian refugees live in 12 camps across
Lebanon.
'Children still living in Nahr al-Bared have been through unspeakable
trauma, they have witnessed their homes being destroyed, loved ones
being killed or injured, and were trapped in their homes hearing the
terrifying sounds of gunfire around them,' Dr Kenan said.
'All NGO's now should focus on facilitating emotional recovery for
those children,' Dr Kenan said.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Seniora has vowed to spare the lives of
Palestinian civilians, but said he is determined to 'uproot the
terrorists inside the camp who are taking the civilians as their human
shield.'
Lebanese Defence Minister Elias Murr said Friday 'we are working
towards a political solution to end this crisis with minimum civilian
casualties.'
Fatah al-Islam, the group that has been fighting the national army in
Lebanon near the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp close to the
northern city of Tripoli, is one of the recent Palestinian armed
groups in the country.
Primarily made up of Sunni Arabs, the resistance group announced its
formation last November, shortly after two of its members were
arrested by the Lebanese authorities.
Fatah al-Islam is led by Shaker Abssi, a Palestinian wanted by both
Syria and Jordan.
He is suspected of having links to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian
leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq who was killed last July.
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