Israel warns residents of Sidon to leave. Many thousands of refugees there

[bigtree]

Sat Aug 5, 2006 9:05 AM ET

Israel warns residents of Sidon

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Israel said on Saturday it planned to bomb "Hizbollah rocket launching sites" in Sidon and warned the inhabitants of south Lebanon's biggest city to leave.

The Israeli army announced its intentions as a senior U.S. official was meeting Lebanese leaders on a possible deal to end Israel's 25-day-old war with Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2006-08-05T130530Z_01_L30823603_RTRUKOC_0_US-MIDEAST1.xml&src=rss


Displaced man and woman tie the knot in a refugee shelter in south Lebanon

Fri Aug 4, 2:25 PM

SIDON, Lebanon (AP) - Becoming war refugees did not stop Mohammed Ghazi Taleb and Rasha Mroue from doing what they had in mind for some time. In fact, it was extra motivation.

The two tied the knot Friday in a simple ceremony at a girls high school that was converted into a shelter for residents forced to flee their homes across Lebanon's embattled south. The southern port city of Sidon has swelled with tens of thousands of refugees in 24 days of fighting.

About a million Lebanese - a quarter of the country's population - have been displaced, Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora has said.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/04082006/2/world-displaced-man-woman-tie-knot-refugee-shelter-south-lebanon.html

[ananda]

1. OK, exactly how..

.. are those poor people in Sidon supposed to leave?

Are there any viable routes open to them? Do they have
transportation? Do they have food and water?

Sheesh.

Sue

[liberal N proud]

2. Telling them to leave so they can bomb them on the road?

Why don't they just "NOT DROP THE BOMBS" That would be something new.

[bigtree]

3. MSNBC says 250,000 people there

calls it a dangerous catch-22 because there doesn't appear to be an exit . . .

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

19. Deleted message

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[Kailassa]

23. Don't you realize how antisemitic you are being?

How dare you call the people threatened with slaughter "human beings"!

This area too is full of Hez'b Allah, who will become recognizable after the bombing by the variously sized body-bags enclosing them.

We will be able to provide proof afterwards of a Hez'b Allah missile launcher beside a bombed building, as we have done before. To make the proof indisputable, we will even be using the same stock photos we used last time.

Remember, to stay on the right side in this argument, you must keep chanting, "kidnapped Israeli soldiers, kidnapped Israeli soldiers," and never once let the notion of "water-wars" enter one's mind.

http://fromoccupiedpalestine.org/node.php?id=146

[Ghost Dog]

38. Water wars?

http://lebanonupdates.blogspot.com/

00:17 Sunday Aug 6th, Lebanon time Israeli air strike on Nahr al-Bared dam note: this is in the region of Tripoli,in the far North of Lebanon - ref (warning: .doc). There is a large Palestinian refugee camp here.

[madrchsod]

4. there are no more words to describe Israeli`s crimes against humanity

the citizens of israel will pay the price for what they allow their government to do in their name. so will we.

[BayCityProgressive]

14. So are the

Palestinians and Lebanese paying the price for allowing their governments to do what they do? That's some sick logic, but hey it's just Israelis citizens- that is different here.

[bigtree]

15. Lebanon's government isn't Hizbollah

there are TWO menbers of the Lebanese parliament who are Hizbollah who hold respective Labor and Energy posts. There are 142 members of the Lebanese parliament. Lebanon's leadership, the Executive, has no Hizbollah members. There is widespread agreement that it has been beyond the capability of the lebanese 'government' and military to disarm Hizbollah. I can't imagine that their involvement in Hizbollah's decision to attack was any more than hearing of it by some members as has been reported, and not responding in a way that would alert anyone to stop Hizbollah. But, again, I don't think they had the capability to do so, *and I doubt the account of the Hizbollah leader. There is a political side to Hizbollah which has some popularity to achieve some influence in the Parliament, but I don't think it's decisive.

As usual the civilians are caught in the middle of these protected leaders. So, when we say 'the Lebanese', I think there should be some consideration that most of the activities, actions, and decisions are being decided and prosecuted without any effective imput from them at all. They are no less victim to the violence than the Israelis.

[bigtree]

20. then again, there is that cabinet addition

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1638851

(my mistake) I wonder how that works, he's just announced the Hizbollah position before going into a Cabinet meeting. I wonder how the broader Lebanese govt. will decide to respond.

[jpkenny]

30. What do "they do?" Do they take people's land, water, bulldoze homes

bulldoze people, bomb villages from the sky, send missiles from ships to pound civilian areas, plan and carry out state sponsored assassinations? Give me a clue. What do the Palestinains or Lebanese people do or their governments that occupied people wouldn't do under the same circumstances?

[Lerkfish]

5. they tell them this AFTER bombing all bridges and exits?

Somehow, I don't guess the IDF is all that good a shot. They have to corrall all the refugees in one place, bomb all the exits, and then while they're trapped start shooting.


fish in a barrel.


This is a sick, twisted evil little world

[bigtree]

9. from the article

Some houses in the hilly village northeast of Tyre were damaged, and roads linking it with other regions have been repeatedly hit.

[Lerkfish]

16. right, hence my "fish in a barrel" remark

[Nikki Stone 1]

33. Fish in a barrel is right. Bombing refugees is not the way to make your

case to the world.

This will be a mistake.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Oversea Visitor]

8. Really

I see hizbollah all just use as excuse.
After all make no sense for all this destruction.
Rocket too easy to move around.
You bomb they gone. They can go anywhere, They can even come back after city reduce to rubble and still fired their rocket.
Only result get it city destroy
People lose home people get kill
People get angry people grow to hate.
Wan to solve this hmmm start talking
Maybe want to destroy Lebanon then start talking more like it.
Oh well fuck happen
And when fuck happen
More people get fucked up
And when more prople get fucked up more fuck happen and so it goes on and on and on.
Got road map to peace dont want to take.
Take path to more misery.
Good solution.
Whee damn cheap price to keep land occupied.
Whee go try it for another 50 years maybe se light
If not try another 100 years maybe decide give all land back
Still want can continue another 500 years.
Maybe some mad man one day start a nuke war.
Maybe then dont need to suffer too long cause then nuke war kill all
No more people to fight :rofl:

[dipsydoodle]

10. I would expect Hezbolla

to be kind enough to warn Israel before it totals Tel Aviv in response.

[TahitiNut]

31. Certainly before the Hizb'allah Air Force and Navy are deployed.

:eyes:

[partylessinOhio]

11. The King of Jordan flies his own Blackhawk. Why doesn't he send it

to the fighters in Lebanon so they can bomb Israel? Why aren't the Saudis sending their planes and equipment in to help? Why are they all standing by and watching this slaughter?

There is no place for hundreds of thousands of people to flee. There are no roads and bridges that are passable any longer.

Lebanon needs peace. They need for the aggression, the invasion and the slaughter and destruction to end. Lebanon needs help to drive back these evil heartless and cruel butchers. They cannot do it alone.

Where is the world? Where are the Arabs? Use your oil if nothing else, shut off the supply to Israel and their chief ally.

[bigtree]

12. They don't want to turn Lebanon into an aggressor

by waging war against Israel on their behalf, as Hizbollah supposes they are doing. Also there is a hesitancy for these Arab nations to embrace Hizbollah whose base is predominantly Persian.

I would agree that it's past time for some sort of unified response from the Arab community that involves more than the expressions outrage that have come daily from these neighboring nations. The oil idea might snap back on the less affluent Arab states, so, I don't know if that's the best course. I think restraint may be the best that they can offer right now as, I imagine, many of their countryfolk will be clamouring for more direct confrontation which would do nothing but escalate the conflict.

I think a more productive choice would be to band together and insist on a major role in any cease-fire, peacekeeping force, but, it remains to be seen just how willing these nations will be to offer up their own troops for any endeavor. I want to see what their commitment to peace is, and I'm less concerned with any more counterproductive militarism.

[daydreamer]

22. US pays them hundreds of millions to keep them shut up.

[Kailassa]

25. Perhaps the first response you suggest

would turn this into the final armageddon.

A complete embargo seems to be the only answer,
but America will prevent that even being discussed.

[leftchick]

13. "heaviest bombardment of the 25-day-old conflict "

A general view of sunken boats at the fishing port in Beirut's Uzai district near the airport, one day after it was attacked by Israeli air strikes. Israel battered Lebanon with what police described as the heaviest bombardment of the 25-day-old conflict as world powers bickered over the wording of a UN Security Council call for a ceasefire.(AFP/Patrick Baz)

[Karenina]

17. France and the U.S. agree to wording!

HOLD YOUR FIRE!!! :argh::argh::argh:

[bigtree]

18. no immediate ceasefire. Lets Israel fire at will.

"defensive attacks"

[bluedog]

21. just where are they going to go and how????????

On a Greek news station I saw the fliers dropped and a mass of them ended up in the water!!!!

[malaise]

24. LBC America

showed kids picking them up from the water. I assume Bushco knows Sidon is the largest Sunni community in Lebanon. What a nice way to unite Shiites and Sunnis across the ME.

[breakaleg]

26. just to show how insane these whole evacuation requests are..

so far, a lot of the casualties have been from refugees who have fled, as instructed, only the bombs followed and they were killed in their next hiding place. I would think there would be more discussion on this in the media.

How can Israel instruct people to leave, and when they do, bomb them in their next shelter. And when they send more leaflets instructing them to leave, do they not realize people are probably paralyzed with fear knowing what happened to the last group who left? Where is the logic in that?

[Tom Joad]

28. It is not instructions, they are threats, it is a campaign of terror.

[breakaleg]

29. I agree. I was trying to tone it down.

[Tom Joad]

27. Will they ever be allowed to return? Or will this be the new Nakba?

In 1948, over 700,000 Palestinian homeland and become refugees, and were never allowed to return, despite many UN resoltutions, despite this being a crime against humanity spelled out in the Geneva convention.

How many of these refugees must wander for decades? How long before US peace and justice groups cry out for justice?

[bigtree]

32. Lebanese: 6 civilians killed by IAF attack near Sidon

Six Lebanese civilians were killed and five injured by an Air Force attack in southern Lebanon, Lebanese police said.

According to the report, the citizens were killed by an Air Force missile fired at a structure near the Sidon port.

(AFP) (08.06.06, 07:58)

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3286905,00.html

[malaise]

35. Oh well

now they have attacked the Sunnis. Looks like Israel's rage supercedes political sense.

[bigtree]

34. Sidon swells with refugees as Israel destroys more infrastructure

SIDON, Lebanon Israeli warplanes are again pounding Hezbollah's stronghold in the southern suburbs of Lebanon's capital, Beirut.
The impact of five massive strikes reverberated through the city overnight.

After sunrise Sunday, Israeli bombs hit a textile factory in the border town of al-Manara, killing one person and injuring two, according to the mayor.

Other air raids targeted the cites of Sidon in the south and Baalbek in the Lebanon's eastern Bekaa Valley. The strikes on Sidon are the first against the city crowded with refugees fleeing the heart of the war zone farther south. The bombs destroyed a religious complex linked to Hezbollah. At least four people were wounded.

http://www.wane.com/Global/story.asp?S=5185491&nav=menu32_2

[malaise]

36. Mad, Mad, mad

these barbarians cannot be described.

[bigtree]

37. Sidon mayor fears refugee disaster

By Yoav Stern

The Israel Defense Forces dropped leaflets over the weekend telling villagers in the south to leave their homes. To residents of villages south of the Litani River: due to the terror incidents being carried out from within your villages and homes against the State of Israel, the IDF is forced to respond immediately, even within the villages. You are all asked to evacuate the villages immediately for your own welfare. The State of Israel.

The IDF Spokesman?s Office said the IDF does not view southern Lebanon residents as enemies, and has no interest in harming them.

The area is thought to be home for about 400,000 people. UN officials told Haaretz yesterday that it is very difficult to estimate the exact number of refugees. By rough estimates, 70 percent of residents of the small villages in south Lebanon have fled to larger cities in the area or to the north. About 50 percent of the population in the larger cities, such as Marjayoun, Bint Jbail and Tibnin, have remained. The UN officials stressed that these are very rough estimates only.

Sidon Mayor Abd al-Rahman al-Bizri yesterday estimated the number of refugees in his city at 35,000, about one-third of its population.

Vegetable markets were open only for several hours before supplies ran out amid the rush to stock up. In addition, it was reported that some of the refugees from the south have gone to the Palestinian refugee camps, because there is no room for them in Sidon.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/741425.html

and, that's the news from Sidon . . . so far.