LEBANON: PALESTINIAN REFUGEES PROTEST AGAINST ISRAELI BLOCKADE OF YASSER ARAFAT'S OFFICES ON WEST BANK.

Record ID: 275178

  • Title: LEBANON: PALESTINIAN REFUGEES PROTEST AGAINST ISRAELI BLOCKADE OF YASSER ARAFAT'S OFFICES ON WEST BANK.
  • Date: 23rd January 2002
  • Summary: (U5) AIN EL HILWEH CAMP, SOUTH LEBANON (JANUARY 22, 2002) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. GV/MV: DEMONSTRATORS CARRYING POSTERS OF PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT YASSER ARAFAT MARCHING THROUGH CAMP AND CHANTING SLOGANS SUPPORTING ARAFAT/ WOMEN PROTESTERS MARCHING AND CHANTING SIMILAR SLOGANS/ VARIOUS DEMONSTRATORS AMONG THEM GUNMEN (10 SHOTS) 1.09 2. GV/MV: PROTE
  • Embargoed: 7th February 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: AIN EL HILWEH CAMP AND TYRE, LEBANON
  • Country: Lebanon
  • Reuters ID: LVA9J303F7EDI62PZIABDX0B0EK6
  • Story Text: Thousands of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon have
    protested at Israel's continuing policy of blockading
    Palestinian president Yasser Arafat in his West Bank offices.



    Thousands of Palestinians took to the streets of
    Lebanon's largest refugee camp on Tuesday (January 22),
    demanding that Israel ease a blockade pinning Palestinian
    President Yasser Arafat in his West Bank offices.

    "No matter how much they tighten the siege, you are our
    leader, Abu Ammar," chanted some of the more than 2,000
    protesters who marched through the Ain el-Hilweh camp, near
    the southern port city of Sidon.

    Israeli tanks have Arafat hemmed in at his headquarters in
    Ramallah, as Israeli forces on Tuesday killed four
    Palestinians in retaliation for an attack by a Palestinian
    gunman
    that killed six people in northern Israel last week.

    Arafat says he is doing all he can to rein in extremists,
    and on Monday (January 21) said Israel had gone too far with
    its retaliation, vowing to seek a Palestinian state even if it
    cost him his life.

    Khaled Alaref, an official of Arafat's Fatah faction,
    blamed the United States for escalating Israeli-Palestinian
    violence by backing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's
    demand that Arafat round up militants before peace talks
    resume.

    "We will not raise the white flag, we will not
    surrender.. resistance and intifada shall continue as long as
    there is occupation."
    Separately, about 300 Palestinian refugees held a sit-in
    near the headquarters of United Nations in the southern city
    of Tyre, and circulated a petition asking that international
    community pressure Israel to ease its ring around Arafat.

    Some 360,000 Palestinians are registered as residents of
    Lebanon's refugee camps. Now in their sixth decade of exile,
    they frequently demonstrate to show solidarity with the
    16-month-old Palestinian uprising against Israel.

    jrc/uh



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