From: UPI
Subject: Palestinian deportees trapped between Lebanese Army and Israelis
Reply-To: ayman@eecs.umich.edu
Organization: United Press International
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 20:57:52 GMT
X-Note: This article was automatically cross-posted to soc.culture.lebanon

[ Article cross-posted without permission ]
	RASHAYA, Lebanon (UPI) -- More than 400 of Palestinians deported by
Israel were turned back Friday by Lebanese troops when they tried to
cross into Lebanon, and were unceremoniously left to fend for themselves
in a desolate no man's land between the two countries.
	After a 36-hour trip aboard eight yellow flatbed trucks, the
Palestinian deportees, blindfolded, handcuffed, arrived at the Marj Al
Zouhour checkpoint, controlled by the Lebanese Army, witnesses said.
	The deportees shouted ``Allah Akbar!'' (God is Great!) and raised
copies of the Koran, the Muslim holy book, as they arrived at the
Lebanese checkpoint on the northern border of Israel's 9-mile-wide self-
declared ``security zone'' in southern Lebanon along the Jewish state's
northern border.
	But the Lebanese soldiers ordered them to turn back to the Zimraya
checkpoint to the south, manned by Israeli troops and their proxy South
Lebanon Army militia, the witnesses said.
	The Israeli soldiers ordered the deportees to get out of the trucks,
unbound them, and directed them to walk back toward the Lebanese
checkpoint in Marj Al Zuhur, according to the witnesses. The
Palestinians were dressed in green raincoats to protect them from a
wintry downpour.
	The Israelis fired shots in the air as the deportees tried to return
to south Lebanon, the witnesses said. The Palestinians, including
several elderly men, moved again to the Lebanese army position during a
heavy rain, the witnesses said.
	Witnesses said at least five deportees were wounded when Israeli
troops opened fire. The Communist-run ``Voice of the People'' radio
station said two of them were evacuated by the International Committee
of the Red Cross back to Israel.
	The Palestinians, sheltered only by their raincoats, were left to
sleep in a rock-strewn valley surrounded by snow-covered mountains. In
the morning they were brought bread and cheese by Lebanese sympathizers.
	Later the Red Cross brought more food, blankets and dry clothes and
set up tents for the deportees, creating a camp that likely will be
their home until their status is finally resolved.
	A well-informed Lebanese source who requested anonymity said the
Lebanese Army allowed the Red Cross to bring in the aid ``for
humanitarian reasons,'' but would not permit the injured into Lebanon 
``under any circumstance.''
	The pro-Iranian Hezbollah, which sympathizes with the Palestinian
fundamentalist groups, also brought in tents and firewood to help the
deportees face a cold night.
	In Jerusalem, an Israeli Army spokesman declined to comment on the
situation.
	Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri said the Lebanese army had been
ordered not to allow the deportees to enter the country's northern areas
``under any circumstances. ... If anything happens, Israel will then to
be blamed,'' he told the British Broadcasting Corp.
	Israel has said the deportees were among 1,600 Palestinian activists
rounded up since Sunday after an Israeli border policeman was abducted
and killed by the military wing of the Muslim fundamentalist
organization Hamas.
	The expulsion of the Palestinians prompted Lebanon to file a
complaint at the United Nations Security Council in an effort to exert
pressure Israel to repatriate the deportees. Lebanese Foreign Minister
Fares Boueiz held an urgent meeting with the ambassadors of the United
States, France, Britain, Russia and China.
	Munir Makdah, the military commander of the mainstream Fatah
movement, threatened to escalate military attacks against Israel. 
``Orders were given to all our fighters to retaliate militarily on the
Israeli measure and Israel should expect an escalation as a response to
its brutal crimes,'' he said.
	A spokesman for the fundamentalist Islamic Jihad in Beirut, Majed
Fares, said his group backed the Lebanese government decision not to
receive the deportees. ``The Lebanese government is very serious and
does not intend to change its position,'' he said.
	Israel's High Court of Justice voted 5-2 Thursday to allow the
expulsion of about 400 suspected members of the Hamas Islamic Resistance
Movement and the Islamic Jihad. Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's Cabinet
ordered the two-year deportations, termed ``temporary removals,''
following the kidnapping and execution of the Israeli border policeman
by Hamas and the killing of five other soldiers in the past 10 days.
	But the court demanded that the government explain within 30 days its
full reasons for ordering the mass expulsion, the largest since Israel
captured the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1967 Six-Day War.
	Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip said the
unprecedented move would strike a ``death blow'' to the Middle East
peace process. Many Palestinians reacted Friday with rage and calls for
heightened confrontation with security forces Friday.
	In Cairo, the League of Arab States strongly condemend the
deportations, saying such ``arbitrary and irresponsible Israeli
practices threaten the (Middle East) peace process, which is considered
the only hope to reach a safe and stable status for the region.''
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