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Workers return home to Damascus from Lebanon

23 July 2006


Syrian Fadi Rustom is back home in Damascus after 10 years in Lebanon. The restaurant he worked in, in Lebanon’s Bekaa valley closed shortly after Israel began attacking Hizbullah targets there. Israel has been bombing Lebanon since 12 July. “I used to earn $1,000 a month,” Rustom says, “but in Syria I think I will get just $600.” Syria’s Interior Minister, Bassam Abdel Majid, says more than 81,000 Syrians have fled from Lebanon over the past few days, making the short but treacherous journey back to their homeland. 

UN asks for US $150 million in aid

24 July 2006


The United Nations is asking for US$150 million from donor countries to assist around 800,000 people in Lebanon. The UN’s Emergency Relief Coordinator, Jan Egeland launched the appeal in Beirut on Monday. Egeland said the ‘flash appeal’ was to cover a period of just three months and “the clock just started ticking.” Around US $10 million of the money requested would go to help people fleeing Lebanon into Syria. 

Islamist and NGO aid to Lebanon outweighs that of Egyptian government's

24 July 2006


The Egyptian government and its Red Crescent have been criticised by opponents and the media for responding relatively slowly to the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Lebanon. It took until 23 July, the twelfth day of bombing in Lebanon, for the Egyptian Red Crescent to send emergency assistance to Lebanon, according to the semi-official Al-Ahram newspaper. The Egyptian government did send two planes bearing goods early on in the crisis, but has done very little else since, it said. 

Palestinians stranded at Syria/Lebanon border

24 July 2006


The UN is urgently appealing to Damascus to ease restrictions at the Syria-Lebanon border to allow Palestinians fleeing Lebanon to enter. “There are 200 Palestinians stranded at border points; some on the main Damascus-Beirut route, others at Dabboussyah near the border governorate of Homs,” Panos Moumtzis, director of the UN Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) in Syria, told IRIN on Monday. More than 100,000 people, mostly Syrian but including Lebanese and other foreign nationals, have fled ongoing Israeli attacks and crossed into Syria since 12 July. Some 150 Palestinians have crossed into Damascus since the crisis started. 

Another generation of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon comes under fire

24 July 2006


Community leaders in Lebanon’s largest refugee camp, Borj al-Barajneh in southern Beirut, say thousands of Palestinian families have fled the area around the camp, and sought safety inside it, straining its fragile resources. Terrified families, they say, are now living as many as 16 persons to a room. “This camp is a disaster area,” says Abu Zaher al-Habet, a member of the Popular Committee that organises the camp. 

"The only thing she keeps asking about is Ahmad"

Hanady Salman Beirut 24 July 2006


She’s much prettier than her pictures, Hweiyda, despite what they did to her. The one safe eye she still has is green, sad, and beautiful. The stitches that go all the way down from her right eye to underneath her neck are almost as deep as the look in her eye. She was sitting on her bed, very silent, very small, so small. Her aunt was trying to get her to eat. Jelly, custard, cheese, chocolate, fresh orange juice. There was everything on that tray. But only when she saw the books my colleagues brought her did she have something that looked like a twinkle in her eye. The one eye they left her. 

The Descent into Hell Is Optional

Patrick McGreevy Beirut 24 July 2006


On the way to Jean-Marie’s flat, we had walked along the Corniche, a paved boardwalk that fronts the Mediterranean. It was surprising to see that people already were returning to public spaces. A few weeks earlier, the Internal Security Forces had begun to prevent small-scale venders from pushing carts along the Corniche, but now, in the space opened by the chaos of the war, they were back. The Lebanese, after decades of intermittent disruption, have evolved into the most flexible of survivors. They were out again, defiantly. 

Guterres urges rapid humanitarian response for Lebanon displaced

24 July 2006


U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres said Monday that his agency is positioning more than 500 tonnes of relief supplies along the Syria-Lebanon border but urgently needs assurances of safe passage to deliver the much-needed supplies to tens of thousands of displaced people. “UNHCR is trucking some 40 trailers loaded with over 500 tonnes of aid supplies from our regional warehouse in Jordan to Syria. It’s frustrating that we can’t deliver this aid, particularly when there are thousands of uprooted civilians just a few hours away in Lebanon who desperately need it.” 

Heavy exchanges of fire continue

24 July 2006


Heavy exchanges of fire continued along the length of the Blue Line in the last 24 hours, with somewhat reduced intensity in the eastern sector. Hezbollah fired rockets from various locations, and the IDF continued the shelling and aerial bombardment. The IDF maintained its presence on the ground inside Lebanese territory in the area of Marun Al Ras in the central sector, and somewhat advanced north of the village in the direction of Bint Jubayl.