Posted on 08/04/2006 9:31:50 AM PDT by WmShirerAdmirer
RASHIDIYEH CAMP: During Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, Abu Shawqi was a 20-year-old "RPG kid," repeatedly firing the shoulder-launched rockets at Israeli tanks during the stiff Palestinian defense of the Rashidiyeh refugee camp.
Now he sits in the shade of a fig tree on the edge of Rashidiyeh, preparing for the possibility of another Israeli assault on the camp if the Jewish state fulfills its stated intention to punch northward all the way to the Litani River.
"It was a very tough battle in 1982. We were kids but we fought them hard," he said, looking relaxed in his olive green military uniform and wearing wrap-around sunglasses.
"God willing, they will come," he said. "They're killing our children in the West Bank and Gaza and we are ablaze with eagerness to fight them."
While life in Rashidiyeh appears normal, with people going about their daily business and shops remaining open, the camp is on a war footing.
Sultan Abu al-Aynayn, the head of Fatah in Lebanon, has swapped his civilian clothes for a crisply ironed camouflage uniform for the first time in 12 years. Ranked a brigadier general in Fatah, Abu al-Aynayn said no one in Rashidiyeh will be wearing civilian clothes if the Israelis enter the camp.
"When they get here, we won't be any less of an obstacle to them than Hizbullah," he said, sitting at his desk with a vast signed photograph of late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat on a wall behind him.
But he said it will be a war of self-defense as far as the Palestinians are concerned. He has no intention of dispatching his Fatah fighters to the border to confront Israeli forces, saying: "There are many individuals who would love to get out of the camp and help the injured and to fight, but our political position is clear: We don't want Lebanon to have to pay the price for our participation in this battle."
Abu al-Aynayn predicted Hizbullah would triumph against the Israeli military in the current conflict.
"Hizbullah understands its enemy very well. From the first moment, Hizbullah has hurt the enemy," he said. "They have been preparing for this battle since the war of liberation" when Israel withdrew from South Lebanon in May 2000.
He predicted many "surprises" from Hizbullah in the days ahead and that Hizbullah's eventual triumph would be seen by the Palestinians as a "victory for themselves as well."
To the south of the camp, in the dense banana plantations and citrus orchards of the coastal littoral and among the villages of Hinniyeh, Deir Qanoun, Mansouri and Qlayle, plumes of smoke rose from artillery barrages and air strikes. The distant thump of exploding shells could be heard every few seconds as Israel's offensive against Hizbullah intensified. Six loud bangs just north of Rashidiyeh signaled another salvo of Katyusha rockets streaking toward Israel, the wavy lines of smoke in the blue sky marking their path.
The fighting around these villages has forced some 5,500 people to flee for the comparative safety of the three Palestinian refugee camps ringing Tyre.
Rashidiyeh's Palestinian population of around 17,000 has found itself in the unusual position of caring for as many as 1,000 Lebanese refugees who have settled into the Ain al-Qassem school, consisting of several white-washed classroom blocks.
"There was very heavy shelling in Deir Qanoun and I just wanted to leave," said Manna Mughniyeh, 40.
Wearing a pink shirt and headscarf, she patted the head of her 9-year-old son, Mohammad, and said that "when he hears shelling he runs up to me and hugs me tight. Look, his hair is turning gray with fear."
The Lebanese newcomers, most of whom are from nearby villages, are housed in the empty classrooms, one extended family per room. The school desks and benches have been stacked up at the back to make room and the Palestinian popular committee which runs the camp provides food three times a day and mattresses to sleep on as well as medicine.
One small classroom has been converted into a temporary kitchen. Two aluminum cauldrons sit on small gas stoves while a woman uses a ladle to stir the contents, a stew of cracked wheat and chickpeas.
"We are doing our humanitarian duty," said Aliya Zumzum, 55, who runs the women's committee overseeing the feeding of the Lebanese arrivals. "We have been guests in their country for more than 50 years and they have been our guests for only a few weeks."
Ibrahim Shweir arrived from Mansouri a week ago with his wife, who had been wounded in the leg by shrapnel, his four children and a nephew.
A grizzled laborer who looks at least 10 years older than his 54 years, Shweir lost an eye in 1989 from Israeli shelling. His wife was paralyzed in one arm a year later in another Israeli bombardment. "It's painful for the people," he said wearily. "Everybody's had enough."
But then a headscarfed teenage girl pushed through and said forcefully to Shweir: "No we haven't. We are going to remain steadfast. As long as the resistance is with us we have nothing to fear."
Here was the voice of the resolute Hizbullah supporter. Identifying herself only as Zeina, 17, she said that her family had arrived from Shaytieh village a week earlier at her father's insistence. Her father had remained in the village, however.
"Because he's a man, not a woman," Zeina said defiantly.
In one of the classrooms, Zeinab Mughniyeh, 15, stood before the chalkboard concentrating hard on writing verses copied from a small Koran she holds in her left hand.
"These are verses we should recite to bring victory," she said.
The Lebanese newcomers, most of whom are from nearby villages, are housed in the empty classrooms, one extended family per room. The school desks and benches have been stacked up at the back to make room and the Palestinian popular committee which runs the camp provides food three times a day and mattresses to sleep on as well as medicine.
"We are doing our humanitarian duty," said Aliya Zumzum, 55, who runs the women's committee overseeing the feeding of the Lebanese arrivals. "We have been guests in their country for more than 50 years and they have been our guests for only a few weeks."
"We have been guest in their country for more than fifty years..."Unbelievable. Generations of Palestinian refugees still in camps in Beirut from 1982. Now they're supporting new "Lebanese civilians" as refugees and Hizbollah! This is what the Lebanese get for running their country haplessly for the last twenty-some years, letting Hizbollah literally take over, the "real Lebanese" ought not to be complaining.
I was wondering why Israel is not bombing the gaza since the hesboz's have been launching missles from there as well.
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