Where are the Lebanese to go?

[bigtree]

Israeli Jets press Raids on Lebanon

Israel has been dropping leaflets on southern Lebanon that urge residents to move north of the Litani River, which runs east to west in a line about 15 miles north of the Israeli border. Israel said it had issued the warning in an effort to reduce civilian casualties.

Anwar Abu Saleh, a Lebanese tailor in Tyre, said he had sent his wife and children to Beirut. He was shivering with fear outside his building, just around the corner from a building that was bombed Thursday.

“I stayed, thinking maybe things would get better, maybe this would end soon,” he said. “But my kids now want me and they don't have any more money. I have to get out of here.”

The United Nations and aid groups are seeking to organize an evacuation of the area, but say they need to coordinate their efforts with the Israelis. French ships will be allowed to dock in Tyre to deliver supplies, Israel radio reported.



The coast road from Beirut to Khalde bombed by an Israeli air strike July 20, 2006. The Israel air strikes have destroyed much of the Lebanese infrastructure and transport network.


Precarious conditions in mountain shelters for fleeing Lebanese

BEIRUT – Conditions for fleeing Lebanese seeking refuge in the mountain areas north of Beirut are precarious, with relief supplies needed urgently to cope with the growing numbers of displaced, says the top UN refugee agency official in Lebanon. The problem is getting those supplies into the country.

"The tragedy is that the supplies are there in Syria. The question now is how to get them in? If the overland route is out for the time being, as it seems, we'll have to move supplies in from Cyprus," said UNHCR's Geneva-based regional director Ekber Menemencioglu on Sunday.

"At the schools, people are traumatised and anxious. The conditions are very precarious," said UNHCR's top official in the country, Arafat Jamal, after a visit to the area on Saturday. "There's a lot of overcrowding, with people sleeping three families to a room and tremendous pressure on the sanitation facilities," he added.

Meanwhile in Syria, there is a constant stream of displaced Lebanese flowing across the border, with 20 cars arriving every five minutes at one border crossing point. An estimated 12,000 people are arriving daily. UNHCR has mobile border monitoring teams at the most active border points of Al Aridha and Daboussia.

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5190.shtml

[Kagemusha]

1. Since Israel's bombing minivans and trucks freely

it's kinda hard to move supplies in, right? They could contain rockets after all...

[bigtree]

3. and if Syria is their best hope, what will be the Israeli response

to their assistance?

[oberliner]

7. Lebanon humanitarian corridor open

Lebanon humanitarian corridor open

ISRAEL has opened a safe maritime and air corridor to allow humanitarian aid shipments to reach Lebanon, the head of the Israeli army coordination office said.

"We have authorised a 50-mile-long and 5-mile-wide (80 km by 8 km) safe passage to the Beirut port for ships and aircraft," Major Asahel Avraham said, apparently referring to helicopters.
"We have announced that any nations that wished to support the humanitarian aid efforts for Lebanon could do so in coordination with us."


http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,,19882062-5006506,00.html

[bigtree]

8. the Israelis are still bombing Beruit. They told the citizens to flee

Now they're going to direct relief supplies there? Wouldn't it be better to let the supplies go to where the Lebanese have fled and are likely to flee to?

[Kagemusha]

11. That corridor goes out to sea, not inland. Irrelevant to trucks.

And minivans.

[redirish28]

2. I guess get displace more. My wife's maternal side are Lebanese

Christians and a lot of them kind of basically fled to America and Australia when the Muslims came into the area.

[pitohui]

10. yes, the americas and australia, exactly what i was thinking

i used to live in a neighborhood w. quite a number of spanish-speaking syrian-lebanese families who had emigrated first to central america and then to new orleans when there was some unrest in honduras

i think there has been a brain drain of intelligent, peace-loving, and prosperous people from lebanon for many decades


this sure won't improve matters any

[sweetheart]

4. lebannon is now israel

liebensraum to the north and free land!!!

[cdsilv]

5. into Israel.

...Tell them that they are 'displaced Jews'. Move south? into Israel.

[whistle]

6. The 3.8 million Lebanese are the new Palestinians of the middle east

...or what will be left of them. They will have no place to go and so many will be killed by more conflict or die from starvation and neglect. This is the horrible reality of the Bush administration's aggressive self-centered foreign policy.

[blonndee]

9. To hell, as far as too many here are concerned. nt

[Swamp Rat]

12. Six feet under

[bigtree]

13. Who will aid Syria as they shelter and provide for Lebanese refugees?

How will aid get to the masses who have fled to Syria?

UN calls for emergency aid for Lebanon

24/07/2006 - 5:06:10 PM

The United Nations’ humanitarian chief today issued an emergency appeal for £81m (€118.58m) in humanitarian aid to help Lebanon through the next three months following the damage wreaked by Israel’s bombardment of the country.

Jan Egeland told reporters in Beirut that the money was needed to pay for food, health care, water and sanitation in over the next three months in key areas.

“Approximately 500,000-800,000 people have been effected by the conflict, of whom some have become displaced persons or refugees,” a statement issued by the UN said.

Egeland said he was asking the Israelis for safe passageways for aid ships to enter the northern port of Tripoli and the southern port of Tyre, which has been heavily bombarded throughout the Israeli campaign.

So far, Israel has loosened its sea blockade of Lebanon only to let ships in Beirut port.

http://www.sbpost.ie/breakingnews/breaking_story.asp?j=81304742&p=8y3x5x44&n=81305122

[porphyrian]

14. If history serves as precedent, the Arab countries won't take them.

Ask the Palestinians.

[Xithras]

15. The Palestinians were somewhat of a special case.

Many middle eastern nations did take them in until the 1970 rebellion in Jordan. Because Jordan (then Transjordan) was part of the original British mandate of Palestine, the Palestinians tried to claim it as their own and a nearly year-long war broke out in that country (a war that killed a huge number of Palestinian refugees). Jordan eventually managed to drive them out of their country, and no other country wanted to take the risk of a similar insurgency taking place within their own borders.

The pariah status of the Palestinian refugees is as much the fault of the PLO as it is anybodies.