From: UPI
Subject: Palestinian deportees go on one-day fast
Reply-To: ayman@eecs.umich.edu
Organization: United Press International
Date: Sat, 26 Dec 1992 04:04:19 GMT
X-Note: This article was automatically cross-posted to soc.culture.lebanon

[ Article cross-posted without permission ]

	MARJ AL ZOUHOUR, Lebanon (UPI) -- Hundreds of Palestinian deportees
kicked out of Israel and dumped on rugged Lebanese soil despite
government protest went on a one-day fast Thursday as their food and
water supplies dwindled nearly to zero and their elderly members began
to suffer from medical problems.
	``We decided to fast for one day,'' said Abdel Aziz Rantissi, a
spokesman for the 415 Palestinians who were expelled from Israel to
Lebanon Dec. 17 because of their ties to Muslim militant groups blamed
for kidnapping and killing an Israeli border policeman.
	``Our drinking water and fuel reserves were exhausted today to the
last drop,'' Rantissi said. He said they still had some canned food but
urgently needed medicine.
	Rantissi said diseases were spreading due to the cold weather and
polluted water used for washing. He said two elderly deportees, Mohammed
Hassan and Hassan Rifai, were evacuated to a hospital early Thursday.
They suffered from heart and kidney problems and stress, he said.
	The Palestinian spokesman asked the International Committee of the
Red Cross and the United Nations Relief Works Agency for Palestinian
refugees to supply them with food and water.
	``This will help us keep alive,'' Rantissi said.
	At midday, French Ambassador Daniel Housson visited seven sick and
wounded deportees at the Bahmad Hospital in Rashaya. Housson refused
comment. On Wednesday, he was barred from inspecting the deportees' camp
by the Lebanese authorities.
	Red Cross relief workers were allowed to cross into the makeshift
camp to evacuate the sick deportees. Since the Palestinians arrived a
week ago, they have been trapped between the Lebanese Army at Marj Al
Zouhour and Israeli troops and South Lebanon Army militia at the Zimraya
gate to Israel's self-declared security zone in south Lebanon.
	The Israeli government expelled the Palestinians, who spent their
sixth night in snowy weather, a week ago in retaliation for the killing
of an Israeli policeman by the fundamentalist Islamic group Hamas. Most
of the deportees are believed to be Islamic fundamentalists.
	Lebanon refused to admit the deportees and blocked all relief
convoys, arguing that the area where the Palestinians are stranded is
under Israeli control and aid should come from the Israeli side.
	Israel reinforced its positions inside the 9-mile security zone it
controls in southern Lebanon and barred access to the Zimraya gate
leading to the Palestinian camp with mines and sand barricades.
	Bernard Pferfferle, head of the Red Cross in Lebanon, said the
organization was expecting a response soon from the Israeli government
to its request for permission to send relief supplies through the
Zimraya gate. It was unclear whether Israel would agree.
	Housing Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said the government would not
provide food or medical supplies to the deportees, who are running out
of provisions in their no man's land in southern Lebanon after being
refused passage by the Lebanese government.
	``The moment the government of Israel decided to deport the Hamas
activists it had no further interest in what happens with them,'' he
said.
	Ben-Eliezer predicted that media interest in the deportees would soon
recede and they would ``disperse within the Arab world.''
	Pferfferle said the deportees' food reserves would last two more
days.
	``The Lebanese authorities allowed me to check on the deportees on
condition that I go alone and won't bring in anything with me,''
Pferfferle said.
	Pferfferle said gave the deportees oral messages from their families.
	Security officials said Israeli troops fired machine-gun bursts and
flares against hills overlooking the deportee's camp during the night.
Five deportees were shot earlier in the week when they approached
Israeli positions.
	In the southern port city of Sidon, some 200 Palestinian women staged
a sit-in at the Red Cross headquarters calling for immediate assistance
of the deportees.
	The demonstrators raised pictures of PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and
placards denouncing the Israeli deportations.
	``We request the return of our brothers,'' read one placard. Another
placard called on Palestinian negotiators to cease peace talks with
Israel.
	In Cairo, Arab foreign ministers and a representative of the
Palestine Liberation Organization asked the United Nations' Security
Council to take action if Israel continues refusing the return of the
deportees.
	Foreign ministers from Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and a
representative of the PLO convened upon a request from both Lebanon and
the PLO.
	Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat thanked Lebanon for its ``brave and
wise'' position regarding the expulsions in a speech he made during the
meeting.
	In New York, an Israeli spokesman said a senior aide of U.N.
Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali will visit Israel beginning
Sunday to draw up a report on the deportations
	The spokesman, Avner Tavori, said Undersecretary-General James Jonah
met with Israeli Ambassador Gad Yaacobi to discuss his 5-day visit,
during which Jonah has asked to meet with the Israeli leaders and the
deported Palestinians.