Fleeing Lebanese call bombing "indiscriminate."

[marmar]

Fleeing Lebanese Speak of Indiscriminate Bombing
by Dahr Jamail

ADDABBAOUSIYEH (northern Lebanese border) - People fleeing the bombing of Lebanon say the Israelis are targeting civilian neighbourhoods and vital infrastructure, and not just Hezbollah centres.

The bombing has killed more than 100 Lebanese civilians so far.

Several border points between Syria and Lebanon are being deluged with refugees. Lebanon has a long border with Syria towards its south, east and north. The refugees include both Lebanese and tourists.

"Everything is being bombed," a teacher from the United States who was on vacation in Beirut told IPS. "It's terror. We've literally been terrorised."

Twenty-five-year-old social studies teacher Abdul Rahman was living with his family in downtown Beirut near the United Nations building before they all decided to flee.

"We have not slept for three days because we were living in terror and never knew when the Israelis would bomb us since they were hitting everything," he told IPS.

"If they want to hit Hezbollah, let them hit Hezbollah, but not the civilians. But civilians are all that they are hitting."

His mother feared for her 96-year-old father who they had to leave behind. "We cannot move him because he is too frail," she said. "And now all we can do is worry, since the Israelis are taking it out on the innocent people."

On Sunday, the Israeli army also re-entered the Palestinian-ruled Gaza Strip. According to reports from Gaza, three members of Hamas were killed after Israeli tanks and bulldozers entered Beit Hanun town early morning.

Gunfire and shelling by the Israelis is also reported to have killed a 75-year-old woman and wounded 10 others, along with a baby.

The rest is at: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0717-04.htm

[Ghost Dog]

1. I guess most in the US are not receiving the full picture:

Humanitarian crisis looming in Lebanon - UN
http://today.reuters.co.uk/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2006-07-17T164223Z_01_L17714117_RTRUKOC_0_UK-MIDEAST-UN-EGELAND.xml
Mon Jul 17, 2006 5:42 PM BST

LONDON (Reuters) - Escalating violence threatens to create a humanitarian crisis in Lebanon as the death toll rises and hundreds of thousands of people flee their homes, U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland said on Monday.

<snip>

Israel's campaign has killed 179 people, all but 13 of them civilians, and wounded more than 500. It has also destroyed much of Lebanon's civilian infrastructure. Twenty-four Israelis have been killed in the fighting, including 12 civilians hit in rocket attacks. "It is already a 'protection of civilians crisis'. We hear and see a population which feels trapped as they are subject to indiscriminate attacks," Egeland told Reuters. He called for an immediate cease-fire from both sides.

He said there were reports of tens or hundreds of thousands of displaced people. While many were sheltering in schools, thousands more were trying to escape to neighbouring Syria but were stopped by blocked or destroyed roads.

Egeland said there were also fears about the effects of energy cuts and the destruction of infrastructure on water, sewage and health. Hospitals were working but fuel was a problem and ambulances were unable to reach people in need of life-saving treatment.

Egeland said it was "heartbreaking" that Lebanon's infrastructure was being destroyed just as reconstruction work had ended after years of civil war.

/continued...