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| A wasteland: Rubble is all that’s left of bombed areas of Nahr al-Bared, a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon. Nicholas Blanford |
Tough homecoming for Lebanon's refugees
After three months of fighting, Palestinians return to flattened refugee camp.
from the November 14, 2007 edition
Page 3 of 3
A senior Lebanese army officer said that soldiers had little choice but to adopt tough measures against the militants.
"The terrorists booby-trapped entire buildings with explosives. They had to be set on fire to safely detonate bombs. This was a very tough enemy we were fighting," the officer says.
All that is of little consequence to the returning Palestinians. It took two weeks for Abu Tawfiq and his family of 12 to clear the rubble from the ruins of his home. One outer wall and several internal walls were blasted away during the fighting. There is no running water, no electricity, and no sanitation, forcing refugees to defecate into plastic bags.
"We are going to put up a tent inside our home for the winter," Abu Tawfiq says.
Summer clothes in winter
Most Palestinians had fled the fighting dressed in light summer clothes.
With their household goods destroyed, many continue to wear T-shirts and shorts despite the freezing rain, sloshing through ankle-deep mud in flip-flops.
Medics report increased cases of diarrhea, infections from cuts, chest and stomach problems, and even a few cases of dysentery.
"No socks, no jackets, no shoes, they are living in houses with no doors or windows. The situation is very bad and if it stays like this it will become a catastrophe," says Ahmad Tayyar, who runs a makeshift clinic in an abandoned house.
Yet, despite the miserable circumstances, seven young brides and grooms were married on Friday, a chance for the Palestinians to briefly forget their woes and celebrate instead. Gathered in a reception hall, guests and children dressed as clowns danced and clapped to the beat of drums, ignoring the icy drip of rainwater seeping in through the shrapnel holes in the roof.
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