LEBANON: SHELLING OF TEL AL-ZAATAR PAI.ESTINIAN REFUGEE CAMP CONTINUES AS PLANS TO EVACUATE WOUNDED ARE HALTED AND REFUGEES FROM OTHER CAMPS WAIT TO BE MOVED.

Record ID: 275232

  • Title: LEBANON: SHELLING OF TEL AL-ZAATAR PAI.ESTINIAN REFUGEE CAMP CONTINUES AS PLANS TO EVACUATE WOUNDED ARE HALTED AND REFUGEES FROM OTHER CAMPS WAIT TO BE MOVED.
  • Date: 1st August 1976
  • Summary: 1. GV Tel Al-Zaatar Palestinian refugee camp, Beirut under fire 0.06 2. TV Falangists firing 120mm mortars 0.13 3. Shells hit Tel Al-Zaatar 0.21 4. SV Dugout trenches PAN TO wrecked huts (2 shots) 0.34 5. GV ZOOM FROM Bunker TO other Lebanese areas 0.46 6. SV PAN OVER Shot up building at Jisr Al Pasha camp PAN TO other wreckage 1
  • Embargoed: 16th August 1976 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: TEL AL-ZAATAR, NABAA & JISR AL PASHA. LEBANON
  • Country: Lebanon
  • Reuters ID: LVA9YBIOAC2I902YT8UQBK8HTPZ2
  • Story Text: Red Cross attempts to rescue hundreds of sick and wounded from the Palestinian refugee camp of Tel Al Zaater near Beirutin Lebanon were postponed yet again during the weekend. A woman official of the International Committee of the Red Cross said one of the besieging right-wing Christian groups had forbidden a Red Cross team to go beyond a wing Christian groups had forbidden a Red Cross team to go beyond a certain point on the road to Tel Al-Zaatar. The Red Cross had to drop rescue plans because it could not accept conditions imposed by either side in Lebanon's civil war, and because it could not guarantee the safety of evacuees. The official said negotiations were continuing.

    SYNOPSIS: Conditions in the camp were horrendous. It had been under siege for more than five weeks.

    This is the Jisr Al Pasha camp not far from Tel Al-Zaatar which fell to right-wing forces about one month earlier. It, like Tel Al-Zaatar, had underground fortifications and long galleries connecting it with other Palestinian areas. In Tel Al-Zaatar, a Swedish doctor, Lars Smedman reported that there were 30,000 people including guerrilla fighters in the camp. Dr. Smedman said 1,400 people had died already. There was a chronic shortage of water. He repeated five times throughout the interview "We will all be dead in three days" Not far from the Jisr Al Pasha camp is a right wing Lebanese area with a missionary school set up by the Vatican. Under it is a cemetery said to be for those kidnapped by Palestinians.

    Another Palestinian area not far from Tel Al-Zaatar is Nabaa, a Moslem area inside the Christian controlled Eastern sector of Beire where fighting had been reported in the past week. These people were refugees waiting to move to safer areas.

    Many had heart rending stories to tell about the fighting. Over the weekend there was no sign of any end to the shelling of Tel Al-Zaater, or the scattered fights in Lebanon in defiance of the ceasefire supposed to be in operation, and no end to the misery brought about by the civil war.
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