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Members of the Lebanese Red Cross help one of the wounded near Nahr Al-Bared camp. (Reuters) |
CAIRO — Though the public opinion and the Palestinian factions support the Lebanese army, the worsening humanitarian crisis in the besieged Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr Al-Bared is casting its pale on the army's operations against militants holding up inside.
"The human situation is a catastrophe," Fatah Deeb, a doctor inside the bombed-out coastal camp, told The Los Angeles Times on Tuesday, may 22.
"We were not able to carry out any surgical operation," he said before his phone went dead.
Wounded civilians could not be treated because electricity and water had been cut off, residents complained.
At least 20 militants, 32 soldiers and 27 civilians have been killed since fighting erupted on Sunday, May 20, following a deadly Fatah Al-Islam's attack on army soldiers.
More than 150 people have been wounded and dozens of homes destroyed, with the narrow alleyways of the camp becoming a horror show of bullets, blasts and bodies.
Burnt-out buildings and mounds of rubble marked the edge of the town-turned-warzone, now besieged by the army which is tightly controlling all entrances.
The fighting is Lebanon's worst internal violence since the 1975-1990 civil war.
Following meeting Lebanese Premier Fouad Siniora, representatives of the main Palestinian factions headed for a meeting will army commanders to help secure a ceasefire.
Siniora asked the Palestinian leaders to distance themselves from Fatah Al-Islam, condemn the group's actions and cooperate in field operations, according to Al-Jazeera news channel.
The third demand proved a sticking point as the Palestinians refused to be dragged into the fighting.
The Palestinian factions had repeatedly distanced themselves from the shadow Fatah Al-Islam, which emerged late last year and has only a few hundred well-armed fighters.
Indiscriminate
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| A Lebanese security man watches as smoke rises from the Nahr Al-Bared. (Reuters) |
Richard Cook, director of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), described the fighting, which entered Tuesday its third consecutive day, as "distressing".
"We are deeply concerned about the developing humanitarian crisis, particularly the danger to civilian lives," he said in a statement.
UNRWA relief convoys queued outside the camp on Tuesday awaiting permission to go in.
Camp residents complained of indiscriminate shelling by the Lebanese army of a camp the houses nearly 40,000 civilians.
"The shelling is indiscriminate," Ashraf Ibrahim, a 30-year-old resident, told the Times.
"What is our fault? Fatah Al Islam is not part of the camp. They are intruders."
Fathallah Deeb, head of the Nahr Al-Bared medical center, said the army's heavy bombardment leveled many buildings in the camp.
He appealed to the Lebanese army to at least allow ambulances and paramedics in to help the injured.
"The dead and wounded are flooding the medical center," Deeb told Al-Jazeera.
"The ambulances have no access to those trapped under the debris."
In solidarity with Nahr Al-Bared's residents, Palestinian refugees in Ain al-Hilweh camp staged a hunger strike Tuesday.
Similar protests were reportedly taking place in the 12 refugees camps across Lebanon.
Support
UN chief Ban Ki-Moon Monday led global condemnation of the actions of Fatah Al-Islam.
"The actions of Fatah al-Islam are an attack on Lebanon's stability and sovereignty," his spokeswoman Michele Montas said.
Saudi Arabia, one of Lebanon's principal backers, under the need to maintain "the sovereignty and stability of Lebanon and support all that is likely to consolidate its security."
The German presidency of the European Union viewed the fighting with great concern, and condemned the attack on the Lebanese security forces "in the strongest terms."
The US, which firmly backs the Siniora government, said Lebanon was justified in attacking the militants.
"Extremists that are trying to topple that young democracy need to be reined in," said President George W. Bush.
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