- Title: LEBANON: AT LEAST 25 DIE IN ISRAELI AIR ATTACK ON NABATIEH REFUGEE CAMP.
- Date: 18th May 1974
- Summary: 1. LV TILT DOWN Damaged power line. 0.08 2. GV Damaged village. 0.14 3. SV Dismembered bodies. (2 shots) 0.30 4. GV Battered buildings with villagers walking about. (3 shots) 1.00 5. GV AND SV Scattered debris and damaged buildings. (2 shots) 1.22 6. SV School books and bag scattered on ground. (2 shots) 1.30 7. SV School ba
- Embargoed: 2nd June 1974 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: NABATIEH CAMP, SOUTHERN LEBANON
- Country: Lebanon
- Reuters ID: LVA6YWKUYED5KQ6015ILL4U4YM3P
- Story Text: Israel's reprisal raids for the Ma'alot school massacre have left at least 48 people dead and 164 wounded in the Palestinian refugee camp at Nabatieh.
The Ma'alot attack resulted in the deaths of 27 adults and children.
Israel jets swooped low over southern Lebanon to strafe and bomb refugee camps said to be harbouring Palestinian guerrillas. In the space of about 20 minutes, 36 Israeli aircraft struck at half a dozen locations....most of them in or near Palestinian refugee camps. Houses were destroyed and hundreds made homeless.
The action satisfied some Israelis who called for revenge after Wednesday (15 May) Palestinian commando attack on Ma'alot school in northern Israel. Twenty one children and six adults died when Israeli troops rushed the school to free children being held hostage.
The reprisals were aimed mainly in southern Lebanon, though air raid sirens did sound in the capital, Beirut. Anti-aircraft guns were fired and Lebanon claimed its aircraft shot down an attacking Israeli jet.
SYNOPSIS: At least half a dozen Palestinian refugee camps in southern Lebanon have been attacked by israeli jets in retaliation for Wednesday's guerrilla raid on a school in Ma'alot, northern Israel.
These were the scenes in Nabatieh which was attacked on Thursday. At least 25 people died and nearly 60 wounded when Israeli jets bombed and strafed the camp. Rescuers say the toll will be even higher when the debris from blasted buildings is cleared. Few houses escaped damage. More than 60 houses in the main street were flattened by three separate air strikes in two and a half hours. Craters from 40, one-thousand bombs dotted the area.
Nabatieh was the worst hit in Israeli's wave of air strikes. They were launched in reprisal for the deaths of 21 children and six adults in Ma'alot. They died when Israeli troops stormed a school where three guerrillas were holding 90 schoolchildren hostage.
Men women and children died in the reprisal raid on Nabatieh. They were taken to hastily prepared graves borne on open stretchers draped with flowers arranged to resemble the Palestinian flag.
Many of the Palestinians who survived the raids are preparing to leave Nabatieh. They say its the third time in three years they've been bombed by the Israelis...and they feel sure it wont be the last.
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