Heavy
fighting continues in the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr el-Bared,
near Tripoli in northern Lebanon, between Islamic armed groups
and the Lebanese army.
According to local Red Cross and Red Crescent sources, thousands
of civilians remain in the camp. Working in close cooperation
and round the clock, Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) and
Lebanese Red Cross (LRC) volunteers are delivering relief to
families still inside the camp and evacuating the wounded. This
essential coordination has helped thousands of people to leave
the camp safely.
Roger Pavitos, director of the Tripoli branch of the Lebanese
Red Cross ambulance service, thought he had gotten used to seeing
corpses and the suffering of injured people during his more
than 10 years as a volunteer in the Lebanese Red Cross. Yet,
Roger could not explain why he became so emotional facing this
child in particular.
The four-year-old boy was not injured or sick, but he was in
shock after three days of heavy shelling and fighting in the
Nahr-el-Bared Palestinian camp.
Clinging to his father who wanted him evacuated with a number
of other children, he would not let go of him or allow anyone
else to carry him. For safety reasons, the father, who was leaving
the camp in a convoy of civilian vehicles, was handing his son
over to the Lebanese Red Cross for the dangerous five-kilometre
trip to the nearby Baddawi Palestinian refugee camp, to pick
him up there, on arrival.
Roger was finally able to take the child. He could feel how
shocked he was as he held him tight in his arms. All he could
think of were his own two children, one of them the same age
as the child. He held the boy as if he was his own son. Exhausted,
the child gave in to Roger’s expression of love and they
both left for Baddawi. The Lebanese Red Cross ambulance reached
Baddawi safely, where the child was re-united with his father
at the compound of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency
(UNRWA), which has been providing relief to millions of Palestinian
refugees in several Middle East countries, including Lebanon,
for decades.
“In coordination with the Palestine Red Crescent, we were
able to evacuate 450 persons, mostly children and elderly people
to Tripoli and Baddawi camp that day,” explained Roger.
“No time for rest under fire when you are trying to save
lives.”
A wide smile appears on his face when asked if he is afraid,
working under such dangerous and strenuous conditions. “Danger
makes us more cautious. We plan our steps more carefully,”
he says. “We have to stay alive as we have our own families
to think about. But, we also have to protect the lives of those
we are trying to save. We have to be bold but also careful in
order to evacuate people to safety.”
Coordination between the Palestine Red Crescent Society, working
inside the camp, and the Lebanese Red Cross outside is vital.
There are many stories of people who were saved thanks to this
collaboration.
One day, as LRC volunteers were receiving several injured persons
from the PRCS, who were to be evacuated to Baddawi, a resident
of Nahr-el-Bared collapsed near the ambulance. Although healthy,
fit and in her 30s, Fatima Ghoneim could no longer walk due
to fear and shock.
She was now begging reluctant volunteers to take her along.
They hesitated; they were there to evacuate the injured. How
could they justify bringing healthy people out? But scenes of
the July/August 2006 hostilities in Lebanon, and cries of help
from traumatized people, were still fresh in their minds.
Sympathizing with Fatima’s plight, a volunteer opened
the back door of the ambulance. Soon, more than 20 people had
crowded into the vehicle. They were all brought to the safety
of Al-Minyeh, a nearby Lebanese town whose residents were paying
back their Palestinian brothers and sisters in kind. They still
remembered how Nahr-el-Bared had offered them shelter, food
and other necessities during the conflict in July. They were
now displaying the same kind of solidarity.
Some 3,000 Palestinians have been accommodated by Al-Minyeh
residents. According to the PRCS and the LRC there is a lack
of sufficient shelter, water, food, and electricity in the Baddawi
camp since the influx of people displaced by the fighting in
Nahr-el-Bared.
Roger took some time to talk to evacuees and was comforted to
hear their gratitude towards both the Palestine Red Crescent
and the Lebanese Red Cross. “We are praying for you all
the time,” said Fatima. “We know that you put your
lives in danger to save others. We all appreciate that."
Other expressions of solidarity between Red Cross and Red Crescent
volunteers were numerous inside and outside the camp.
On his way out, Omar Khalil, a Palestinian from Nahr-el-Bared
who heads a family of 13 people explained how he could not find
enough words to thank both National Societies. “Palestine
Red Crescent volunteers had to break down the wall of our home
to get us out from the rubble,” he said. “Two of
my children were lost during the mayhem. The Lebanese Red Cross
was able to evacuate all of us, including my disabled son, find
the two who were lost and bring them back to me. It was only
in the evacuation ambulance that I was able to see little smiles
on my children’s faces.”
More than 50 LRC volunteers have been active in the evacuation
and relief operation at Nahr-el-Bared. Inside, the Palestine
Red Crescent had to change the location of its clinic as it
was dangerously close to the firing line.
The response of the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement to the plight
of civilians was quick and well coordinated. The PRCS was able
to send food items, medical teams and paramedics dispatched
by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the
Lebanese Red Cross into Nahr-el-Bared, Baddawi and Al-Minyeh
to provide as much relief assistance as possible to the needy.
The PRCS has the responsibility of evacuating the wounded and
the sick, handling the delivery of medicines and food items
to residents of both camps and initiating psychological support
activities in Baddawi for more than 150 refugee children.
According to Ayad el-Mounzer, the Information Officer of the
LRC, his organization has been transferring patients to Safad
and other hospitals. “The Lebanese Red Cross is still
on full alert to provide assistance when needed.”
Since the outbreak of the fighting, the ICRC, the Palestine
Red Crescent and the Lebanese Red Cross have provided the refugees
in Nahr el-Bared with more than 40 tonnes of food and bread,
some 121,000 litres of drinking water, 800 hygiene kits and
44,000 candles. Aid has also been delivered to those who fled
to the nearby camp of Baddawi and to other Palestinian camps
in Saida, Tyre and in the Bekaa region.
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More
than 50 LRC volunteers have been active in the evacuation
and relief operation at Nahr-el-Bared. Inside, the Palestine
Red Crescent had to change the location of its clinic
as it was dangerously close to the firing line. (p15811)
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A
member of the Lebanese Red Cross helps a Palestinian woman
near Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon (REUTERS/Mohamed
Azakir/courtesy www.alertnet.org)
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The
PRCS has the responsibility of evacuating the wounded
and the sick, handling the delivery of medicines and food
items to residents of both camps and initiating psychological
support activities in Baddawi for more than 150 refugee
children. (p15814)
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Sympathizing
with Fatima’s plight, a volunteer opened the back
door of the ambulance. Soon, more than 20 people had crowded
into the vehicle. (p15813)
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Working
in close cooperation and round the clock, Palestine Red
Crescent Society (PRCS) and Lebanese Red Cross (LRC) volunteers
are delivering relief to families still inside the camp
and evacuating the wounded. This essential coordination
has helped thousands of people to leave the camp safely.
(p15812)
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