Lebanon Relief Works

Othman Moqbel from MH UK coordinates relief works with staff and volunteers in Lebanon.

Several weeks of heavy fighting in-and-around Nahr Al-Bared have left the camp without basic amenities such as electricity and have caused thousands to flee to surrounding refugee camps. MH teams are working to deliver aid to the Nahr Al-Bared camp but also to assist those who have been displaced. Ambulances are ferrying the sick and injured, aid teams are distributing food, water and medicine, and also dealing with other needs such as spraying areas to provide disease control.

Helping Those In Need -- An account by Othman Moqbel, MH UK

Background to the Crisis

In 1948 more than 100,000 Palestinians fled their homes to Lebanon, followed by a further exodus in 1956 and again during the Six Days war of 1967. According to the UNRWA, in 2003 the number of Palestinian refugees inside Lebanon stood at 400,000.

More than 60% of Palestinians in Lebanon live inside refugee camps, many in indescribable and squalid conditions. Nahr Al-Bared, scene of the recent fighting, is the second largest in the country and home to almost 16,000 Palestinians.

Our Aid Mission

On the 26th May a convoy of ambulances belonging to Muslim Hands and the Islamic Medical Association set off from the al-Shefaa hospital in Tripolli. Our first stop was the Al-Badawi camp, previously home to some 16,000 Palestinians but now swelled with evacuees from Nahr Al-Bared. At Al-Badawi we stocked our ambulances and vehicles with medicine, water, bread, candles and other supplies.

Even during such a brief stop many women who had fled the camp rushed over to tell us of the miserable conditions inside and one women, visibly in despair, asked us to bring back the corpse of her husband who had died in Nahr Al-Bared but who could not be buried due to the fighting.

Once the vehicles were loaded we set off for Nahr Al-Bared itself. The going was slow and we had to pass through several Lebanese Army checkpoints along the way, often sitting in one place for upwards of an hour. Eventually however we made it to the outskirts of the camp, where we were told vehicles were only to enter one at a time and at 5 minute intervals. With the tightened security and constant shelling we were only able to drop off supplies before heading back to Al-Badawi -- setting up aid distribution and medical centres inside the camp itself is simply not an option at the moment.

Heartbreaking Stories

On our return to the Al-Badawi camp we began distributing supplies to the almost 5,000 evacuees who had arrived from Nahr Al-Bared. Among those we met were Ziad, a 32 year-old teacher in one of the UNRWA schools. He told us how those he knew had fled in their sleepwear and he himself had seen 28 corpses stacked in a room as there was no safe opportunity to bury the dead even.

There were were many other heartbreaking stories we heard, such as Umm Mohammad who had fled with her 9 children from their home near the Al-Hawouz mosque in Nahr Al-Bared. She kept asking us, "Where is our dignity?" -- a question to which we could provide no answer.

As a matter of course we speak to many of those in need and medical personnel in a relief area to find out what aid is needed. It soon became apparent that as well as food and clean water, the biggest requirement was for medical supplies. Dr Marshould, a doctor working in Al-Badawi, told us, "We need everything: medicine, medical tools, stretchers body bags for the deceased, water sanitation equipment, infants milk…"

Another Misery for a Suffering People

Palestinian refugee camps are crowded places at the best of times, but in Al-Badawi the situation is especially bad and the influx of people continues. Most evacuees either stay with relatives or are housed in mosques or one of 7 schools. In many of these you find 30 or even 50 people huddled together in a single room.

Many of the elders in the camp spoke of how the current situation and difficulties brought back painful memories of fleeing their homes inside Palestine during the 40's, 50's and 60's. It is even more shocking to think a people can be made refugees for a second time. Yet, in spite of all this, there is a strong sense of dignity among the evacuees and a desire to return "home" to Nahr Al-Bared once the fighting has ended.

Our hope of course is that the fighting in Nahr Al-Bared will end without taking any more innocent lives and something of the camp will remain for people to return home to. In the meantime we can only ask our donors to offer their prayers for those affected and to donate generously, allowing our work to continue insha'Allah.

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