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 18:55:54 GMT
X-Note: This article was automatically cross-posted to soc.culture.lebanon

[ Article cross-posted without permission ]
	RASHAYA, Lebanon (UPI) -- Hundreds of Palestinian fundamentalists
deported by Israel were turned back Friday by Lebanese troops when they
tried to cross into Lebanese-controlled territory, witnesses and
security sources said.
	Some 400 Palestinian deportees were transported at dawn in eight
trucks as far as the Marj Al Zouhour checkpoint, controlled by the
Lebanese Army, witnesses said.
	The deportees shouted ``Allah Akbar'' (God is Great), raising copies
of the Koran, the Muslim holy book, as they arrived at the Lebanese
checkpoint.
	Lebanese soldiers ordered them to turn back to the Zimraya checkpoint
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
and walk again toward the Lebanese checkpoint in Marj Al Zuhur, then
fired shots in the air as the deportees tried to return to south
Lebanon, witnesses said.
	The Palestinians, including a number of elderly, moved again to the
Lebanese army position under heavy rain, the witnesses said.
	Witnesses on the scene 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, one of whom was identified as Jamal
Taha, were evacuated by the International Committee of the Red Cross to
inside Israel.
	In Jerusalem, an Israeli Army spokesman declined to comment on the
incident.
	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,'' Hariri told
the British Broadcasting Corp.
	Four deportees approached the checkpoint, carrying a sick fellow,
Mousa Hassan Amro, on a stetcher.
	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.
	But Amro, 26, said he and one of his brothers were snatched from
their home in the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank 10 days
before the abduction of the Israeli soldier. They were both expelled to
Lebanon.
	He said three of his brothers were also seized by the Israelis during
the past months.
	``Only my little sister and my elderly parents remained in the house,
'' Amro said. Amro said he couldn't walk because he was repeatedly
beaten by the Israelis during detention.
	Amro and his brother were not the only ones who said they were taken
into custody a long time before the Israeli border policeman was
kidnapped and killed by Hamas.
	Abdallah Shami, one of the deportees, said the journey from Israel to
Lebanon was ``a continous ordeal.''
	``We were bound and flindfolded for two days,'' he said. ``We had not
much to eat and could not sleep for the past three days.''
	Shami said the Israeli soldiers prevented them from praying and
refused to remove the nylon ropes binding their feet and wrists.
	The deportees gathered near the Lebanese position, carrying small
handbags containing clothes and books.
	``What they mostly need is urgent assistance,'' said Mohammed Ayyash,
a Lebanese journalist.
	``They are facing unbearable conditions: Freezing weather, no
accomodation and God only knows how long they can survive,'' he said.
	By midday, the ICRC had rushed an ambulance and three trucks loaded
with blankets, food and medicines to help alleviate the suffering of the
deportees.
	A doctor and nurses were allowed to cross the Lebanese Army
checkpoint to treat the wounded. Other deportees had bruises around
their wrists, allegedly after having their hands tied behind their backs
by the Israelis for two days.
	A well-informed source said the Lebanese Army allowed the ICRC to
bring in food and medicines ``for humanitarian reasons.'' But the army
will not permit the evacuation of the wounded to inside its territories
``under any circumstance,'' the source said.
	The pro-Iranian Hezbollah, which sympathizes with the Palestinian
fundamentalist groups, brought in some 13 tents and large quantity of
woods in an attempt to help the deportees face a cold night.
	The expulsion of the Palestinians prompted Lebanon to file a
complaint at the United Nations Security Council.
	Lebanese Foreign Minister Fares Boueiz held an urgent meeting with
the ambassadors of the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China.
	Boueiz said Lebanon asked for an urgent meeting of the Security
Council with the hope that some pressure be exerted on Israel to
repatriate the deportees.
	In southern Lebanon, tens of Palestinians staged a sit-in in the
refugee camp of Ein El Helweh to protest the Israeli action.
	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,'' Makdah said.
	A spokesman for the 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 intent to
change its position,'' Fares said.
	Late Thursday, Israeli Army escorted a convoy of cars and buses
carrying the deportees from the Israeli northern town of Metulla to the
Zimraya passageway at the edge of the security zone.
	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 organizations. 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 1967.
	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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