Also see below:     
Refugees Have Only Their Anger    [

    Bombings Hit Children Hardest
    By Dahr Jamail
    Inter Press Service

    Monday 24 July 2006

    Beirut - About 55 percent of all casualties at the Beirut Government University Hospital are children of 15 years of age or less, hospital records show.

    "This is worse than during the Lebanese civil war," Bilal Masri, assistant director of the hospital, one of Beirut's largest, told IPS Monday.

    Not only are most of the patients children, but many of the injured have been brought in serious condition, he said. "Now we have a 30 percent fatality rate here in Beirut. That means that 30 percent of everyone hit by Israeli bombs are dying. It is a catastrophe."

    The fatality rate was high, he said, "because the Israelis are using new kinds of bombs which can enter shelters. They are bombing the bomb shelters which are full of refugees."

    Masri told IPS that he believed so many children were becoming casualties because of the "widespread and indiscriminate nature of the bombings" and because "children are least able to run away when the bombings commence."

    This new 544-bed hospital was forced to open its emergency room six months early due to the current crisis. The hospital has had to handle "scores and scores" of casualties, according to the assistant director.

    Masri said he had barely slept in the 13 days since the Israeli bombing of Lebanon began. His hospital, he said, was functioning with only 25 percent staff because "most are now unable to get here because so many roads and bridges are bombed. Those who are here are eating, sleeping and living here 24 hours a day because if they leave they fear they may be unable to return."

    On Sunday, Jan Egeland, the United Nations emergency relief chief, toured the devastated areas of south Beirut. He described what he saw as "horrific" and said the destruction "makes it a violation of humanitarian law."

    Egeland said UN supplies of humanitarian aid would arrive within the next few days, but "we need access," and "so far Israel is not giving us access."

    Aid is now a matter of life and death. Masri said his hospital would soon begin to run out of medicines and supplies.

    "We are concerned about what is to come because we cannot continue at this rate," he said. "Already we've had to go to the Ministry of Health to get extra supplies. If the UN succeeds in opening safe passage from the south, we will be deluged with patients."

    Masri said hospitals in Sidon and other southern cities are overwhelmed with patients, who are being treated in the corridors and lobbies.

    According to Masri many of the injured there are suffering from the impact of incendiary white phosphorous. The Lebanese ministry of interior has officially said that the Israeli military has used this weapon.

    "We don't know why we aren't getting help from the International Committee of the Red Cross," Masri said. "The Lebanese Red Cross is helping us the best they can, but no foreign agencies are helping us. Why not?"

    As the IPS correspondent was speaking with the assistant director, an enraged man was led out by several security guards. His wounded son had just been discharged.

    "I want my son to stay here because we have no place to go," the man was shouting. "Our home has been flattened. If we leave here we must go to a refugee camp in a school, or sleep on the dirt in a park. I demand you allow us to stay here."

    People are furious about the high number of casualties among children.. Mariam Mattar, a 50-year-old mother sitting on a mattress in a park in central Beirut along with hundreds of other refugees from southern Beirut said no home there was safe.

    "We left our house because they are bombing everything in the civilian neighbourhoods," she told IPS. "They are killing all our children. What human would ever do this kind of thing."

    They had moved to central Beirut because it was safer. But living out in the open has meant another kind of hell. "We are without our shoes even. We are living in the dirt. Would Israel allow her children to live like this," she asked, pointing at her bare feet.

    She pulled a little boy towards her and said, "What have these children done? The other children who didn't escape are rotting under the destroyed buildings as we speak."

    Israeli war planes roared above as several refugees spoke with IPS.

    "We are very afraid from all the bombings," Ramadan, a 12-year-old boy in the park said. "I hope they stop. This is all we want now.."

    Go to Original

    Refugees Have Only Their Anger
    By Dahr Jamail
    Inter Press Service

    Tuesday 25 July 2006

    Beirut - Among hundreds of thousands of refugees scattered across city parks, schools and abandoned buildings in Beirut, new and chilling words have been doing the rounds.

    A senior Israeli Air Force official announced on Israeli Army Radio that "Army chief of staff Dan Halutz has given the order to the air force to destroy 10 multi-storey buildings in the Dahaya district (of Beirut) in response to every rocket fired on Haifa."

    Hezbollah rockets continue to be fired into northern Israel. The rocket fire has led to 17 deaths in Israel so far.

    But the Israeli officer's announcement came like warning of more collective punishment of civilians for the Hezbollah attacks. The Geneva Conventions seem forgotten.

    And the attacks seem set to continue. Brigadier General Alon Friedman of the Israeli Army announced on Israeli Army Radio that "the scope continues to grow in recent days ... we are advancing." Friedman said Israeli military operations will continue at least another 10 days.

    The announcements sounded new alarms of more death and destruction to come - and more refugees.

    Reports of new fighting were coming in Tuesday, and more violence was bound to add to the swell of refugees. The Israeli military pushed deeper into Lebanon towards the town of Bint Jbail.

    Hezbollah has been hitting back. Two Israeli soldiers were killed and at least 17 were injured in fighting there, according to local reports.

    Hezbollah claims it shot down a U.S.-built Israeli Apache helicopter inside Israel. Thus far, at least 20 Israeli soldiers have been killed in the worsening conflict. Hezbollah claims it also destroyed five Israeli tanks in the area.

    Fierce fighting was reported again in southern Lebanon, with nearly constant gunfire and explosions.

    And as the Israeli advance continued, Beirut was preparing for yet more refugees. It is estimated that at least 900,000 Lebanese have been displaced already from their homes by the Israeli onslaught.

    "The Israelis bombed all around our house, so we left 12 days ago," 50-year-old Supinesh Attar from the southern city Nabatiye told IPS at a refugee camp inside a city park in downtown Beirut. "We had no water or electricity since the beginning of the attack, so we fled for our lives."

    Attar, sitting on a bench holding a piece of bread he had just been handed by a volunteer, said he was always hungry and did not know where he would go from here. "My family of 12 is scattered all around Beirut. I am the only one in this park."

    Sarjoun Namdi, a relief worker at the camp, told IPS that the camp in the park had dealt with between 3,000 and 4,000 refugees. "Each day we have between 600-700 coming, and we try to move them to a safer place," he said as Israeli jets roared above. "This place has bad hygiene, and not enough food and diapers."

    Nearby, a relief worker pleaded with a large family to relocate to a school in the area so they could have shelter. The family refused to leave the park for fear they would have no food and water at the new location.

    Relief agencies continue to struggle to operate effectively in war-torn Lebanon. International relief groups continue their appeal for safe access to southern Lebanon, as tens of thousands of refugees remain stranded there, and countless wounded, with little assistance.

    International relief agencies are warning of a humanitarian disaster unless their supplies are allowed through. Aside from being impeded by the violence, they are being held back by the ongoing Israeli air and sea blockage. The widespread destruction of infrastructure by Israeli air strikes is also limiting access.

    The Lebanese Red Crescent is still continuing to work round the clock to reach the wounded, and to distribute food, water, blankets and mattresses.

    The International Committee for the Red Cross has provided some assistance, but remains mostly limited by lack of safe passage to the south. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees office is primarily distributing potable water, and other supplies when possible.

    Given the limitations of the refugee agencies, the bulk of relief to the displaced and wounded is being provided on a grassroots level.

    The various refugee camps in schools and city parks that IPS visited were being managed by Hezbollah, local non-government organisation groups, mosques, churches, and just ordinary people.