by Magus » Wed 26 Jul 2006, 20:06:29
Anger grows as Lebanese seek refuge
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By Nicholas Blanford, Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor Wed Jul 26, 4:00 AM ET
TIBNINE, LEBANON - Wearing only slippers on his feet, it took Yussef Beydoun two-and-a-half terrifying hours to walk from his shell-battered village of Kounine to the relative safety of Tibnine.
Here the 78-year-old is one of some 1,600 refugees crammed into Tibnine's government-run hospital, all of them having fled from a cluster of Shiite hill villages to the south. With drinking water running out, no milk, no electricity, and declining stocks of food, as well as little prospect of imminent escape from Tibnine, the refugees are caught in a vortex of confusion, anger, and despair.
"All the time there's bombing, all the houses have been hit. I thought my heart would stop," says Mr. Beydoun, a slim stooped man with a white floppy hat shading his face from the intense midday sun. He says he left Kounine after his house was flattened by Israeli bombing, killing his Sri Lankan and Ethiopian maids.
"They are still buried under the rubble," he says.
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$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he taxis are charging $100 each to take us to Beirut. Who here has $100?" screams Majida Bazzi, her arms flailing wildly in her rage. "There's nowhere to escape the bombing. We have no cars. There's no water in the hospital. Nothing."
The stairs leading to the hospital basement are lined with women, sitting silently, clutching children or babies, talking quietly or just staring blankly.
The narrow cramped passageways in the basement are filled with people who instinctively headed below ground in case Israeli shells strike the hospital. The only light is from candles placed every few yards. Most of the refugees huddled in the basement appear to be sleeping on the cold cement floor.
If Israel hopes that its military campaign will turn Lebanon's Shiites against Hizbullah, whose capture of two Israeli soldiers on July 12 sparked the current conflagration, then it would appear they miscalculated, judging from the mood of these refugees.
"God grant protection for Nasrallah," they chant, referring to Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbullah's leader.
"You go to [US President] Bush and tell him to come here and you will see what we will do with him," yells Bilal Jumaa, a shopkeeper from Bint Jbail who has spent the past week in the hospital. The throng gathered around him cheered loudly at his words.