THE MIDDLE EAST
Fighting, booby-trapped cars, hostages: ten years of war in LEBANON
Sidon, Beirut, Tripoli:
emergency on all fronts
As a result of the violent clashes between rival militia in Sidon and the surrounding area in March, the fighting in and around the camps in Beirut in May and June and the shelling in Tripoli (the capital of northern Lebanon) between September and October, all the resources of the ICRC delegation in this country had to be mobilized, and its emergency activities, particularly medical, food and material aid, had to be considerably increased. In 1985, 1,340 tonnes of relief supplies worth Sw.fr. 3,7 million were distributed by the ICRC in Lebanon. Medicines and medical equipment worth a total of Sw.fr. 4 million were given to hospitals and dispensaries treating the wounded, as well as to the Lebanese Red Cross (LRC).
Sidon: the civilian population in turmoil
18 March: fighting flared up between the various factions and the Lebanese army throughout the city and forced civilians living along the front line to leave their homes. Confrontations quickly spread to the two Palestinian camps of Ain el-Helweh and Mich-Mieh which were shelled, forcing 20-30,000 civilians to flee. In April it was the turn of the region of the Iklim el Kharroub, in the foothills of the Chouf mountains, to be affected.
Twenty to thirty thousand people who had fled from the combat zones initially found refuge in Jezzine, a small town to the east of Sidon. Some of the displaced people later opted to withdraw to the Marjayoun region or to East Beirut.
By the end of April, the Christian militia had withdrawn from the region of Sidon and the Muslim forces took control of the Christian positions, thereby cutting off all links between the Christian groups in the north and south of the country.
The ICRC immediately took the necessary steps to assist the victims of these events. Within two weeks, as soon as the shelling of the Palestinian camps began, ten convoys of relief supplies were organized to provide displaced people with family parcels, cooking utensils and blankets. Between March and April total of 75,000 people received 40,000 blankets, 8,600 parcels and 1,100 cooking utensils.
At the end of March, the ICRC opened an office in Jez- zine, where seven delegates were based, including a doctor and three nurses. The hospital in Kfar Falous, some 15 kilometres from Jezzine, was the only one in this zone capable of functioning. On 26 April, it was declared a neutral zone and placed under the protection of the ICRC, but delegates had to leave it on 30 April because of the military situation.
• BEIRUT
Jounieh
Sidon
Jezzine
Insar
Nabatieh
Marjayoun
Tyre
Tripoli
Zahle
Ksara
ISRAEL
LEBANON
Baalbeck
SYRIA
DAMASCUS
A medical team put together in 24 hours and seconded to the ICRC by the Red Cross Societies of Finland, Norway and Sweden reached Jezzine on the same day and was ready to cope with surgical emergencies brought about by the fighting.
Throughout this long period, the ICRC and the Lebanese Red Cross evacuated the wounded and collected the dead during brief lulls in the fighting. To meet the needs of hospitals and dispensaries, 365 medical kits and medical material were distributed in Sidon, Jezzine and Tyre; 1,140 blood bags and 500 units of plasma a gift from the Norwegian Red Cross were given to the Lebanese Red Cross, as were two ambulances for the local section in Sidon.
Beirut: fighting in and around the camps
From 19 May to 18 June the Palestinian camps of Sabra, Chatila and Borj el Brajneh were the scene of murderous confrontations between the Amal movement and the Sixth Brigade of the Lebanese Army, on the one hand, and beleaguered Palestinians on the other. From the beginning of the fighting, thousands of Palestinian fami- lies, amongst whom were a large number of elderly peo- ple, women and children, sought refuge in the West Beirut areas controlled by the Druze.
Fighting raged for a month and hundreds of people were killed or wounded.
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