From: UPI
Subject: Palestinian deportees turned back by Lebanese
Reply-To: ayman@eecs.umich.edu
Organization: United Press International
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 12:51:17 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
buses 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 buses
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 moved again to the Lebanese Army position in heavy
rain, the witnesses said.
	Security sources said there were some sick and injured among the
deportees who needed urgent medical care.
	The deportees appealed to the International Committee of the Red
Cross and other humanitarian organizations to move quickly and supply
them with tents, food and medicines.
	They told journalists and cameramen who gathered at the Lebanese
checkpoint that they wanted to return to the occupied territories of the
Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
	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.
	Those rounded up included activists from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad
in Palestine. A spokesman for the Islamic Jihad in Beirut, Majed Fares,
said his group backed a Lebanese government decision not to receive the
deportees.
	``The Lebanese government is very serious and does not intent to
change its position,'' Fares said.
	Prime Minister Rafik Hariri said that the Lebanese army was ordered
not to allow the deportees enter the northern areas under any
circumstances.
	``If anything happens, Israel will then be blamed,'' Hariri told the
British Broadcasting Corporation.
	Late Thursday, the Israeli army escorted a convoy of cars and buses
carrying the deportees from the Israeli northern town of Metulla to the
Zimraya pass at the edge of the security zone.
	Witnesses on the scene said at least five deportees were wounded when
Israeli troops fired machineguns over their heads to force them walk
away from the Zimraya crossing point.
	In Jerusalem, an Israeli Army spokesman declined to comment on the
incident.
	The wounded remained in the no-man's land, awaiting the arrival of
relief workers of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC),
the witnesses said.
	An ICRC ambulance and three trucks loaded with blankets, food and
medicines were rushed to help alleviate the suffering of the deportees
who are facing a freezing weather, they said.
	A doctor and nurses were allowed to cross the Lebanese Army
checkpoint to treat the wounded. Other deportees had bruises around
their wrists, allegedly from having their hands tied behind their backs
for two days.
	Two of the deportees were injured in the head and another was hurt in
the leg, the witnesses said.
	A 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 Israelis are to be blamed and bear the complete responsibility,
'' the source said.
	The pro-Iranian Hezbollah, which sympathizes with Palestinian
fundamentalist organizations, said the expulsion of the Hamas and
Islamic Jihad activists was aimed at ``emptying the occupied territories
from the Mujaheedens (strugglers) to achieve the enmey's goals of
annexing the Arab land.''
	Hezbollah deputy Mohammed Fneish backed the Lebanese decision,
saying, ``It is not allowed to help the enemy with its plan to expel the
Palestinian people from their land and achieve its ambitions.''

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