While living in Beirut in 1982 and 1983, Stevens frequently visited the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps and became an advocate for the Palestinian residents, who were mostly refugees of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and their descendants. Writing under the pseudonym June Disney, she published, for example, an article on the Israeli use of cluster bombs and other advanced explosives in the war in Lebanon, and the injuries that Palestinians (including children) in the Burj al-Barajneh camp sometimes sustained when they encountered them or picked them up. During this time she also volunteered at two of the refugee camp hospitals, called Akka Hospital and Gaza Hospital.