From: UPI
Subject: Hamas calls on Lebanon to turn back Palestinians; army seals border
Reply-To: ayman@eecs.umich.edu
Organization: United Press International
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 14:35:45 GMT
X-Note: This article was automatically cross-posted to soc.culture.lebanon

[ Article cross-posted without permission ]
	BEIRUT, Lebanon (UPI) -- Lebanon said Thursday it will not receive
Palestinian militants who might be deported by Israel and the
Palestinian fundamentalist Hamas organization described the Israeli
plans as ``barbaric and terrorist.''
	A Lebanese Foreign Ministry source told United Press International
that the Lebanese army was instructed to close all routes from Israel's
self-declared ``security zone'' to the northern areas under the army's
control.
	``The army has strict orders to close all passageways and prevent the
entry of any Palestinian to the Lebanese areas,'' said the source, who
refused to be identified.
	The source said the command of the U.N. Interim Force in southern
Lebanon, UNIFIL, was also informed of the Lebanese decision and ``was
asked to prevent the entry of the Palestinians.''
	``The army measure is to prevent the Palestinians (from being)
expelled from their own territory,'' the source said. ``We are against
the principle of deportation and expulsion. This is an anti-democratic
measure that contradicts all international conventions.''
	``We want the Palestinians to remain in their land,'' the source
added.
	The steps were prompted by Israel's attempt to expel more than 400
Palestinians in an unprecedented crackdown on Muslim militants sparked
by the kidnapping and killing of an Israeli border policeman on Sunday.
	The expulsion was being held up Thursday by an Israeli high court,
which issued a temporary restraining order after several civil rights
groups complained the government tried to sneak the Palestinians into
southern Lebanon before any appeal could be heard. Lawyers said a delay
of one or two days could not possibly harm national security.
	Security sources said Israeli troops and their proxy, the South
Lebanon Army militia, implemented tight security measures from the
northern Israeli settlement of Metulla to the passageway of Zimraya at
the edge of the security zone in southern Lebanon.
	Witnesses said an SLA force made up of 25 soldiers and four military
vehicles took up positions at the Zimraya passageway at midday.
	Lebanese Army soldiers stationed on the other side of the fence
adopted similar measures after receiving orders not to allow any
Palestinian to cross into Lebenese territory, the witnesses said.
	Earlier, the Hamas representative in Lebanon, Abu Mohammed Mustafa,
described the Israeli plan to deport mainly Hamas and the Islamic Jihad
for the Liberation of Palestine members as a ``terrorist'' and 
``barbaric'' action.
	``It is a terrorist action that indicates the barbarism and insanity
of the Zionist government,'' Mustafa said.
	He called on the Arab negotiators engaged in the Mideast peace talks
``to announce their withdrawal from the negotiations the moment the
decision to expel the detainees is adopted,'' and according to
interviews in Washington, the delegates intended to do so.
	``We also appeal on the Lebanese Government to firmly confront such a
decision by preventing those deportees from entering the Lebanese
territories and returning them back to inside the occupied territories,''
he said.
--
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