Eikä seuraava päiväkään tuonut toiveita muutoksesta parempaan.

27.7.

Day 15……
No changes on the ground…. Safe passages that people were waiting for are not confirmed yet although some ships are coming mainly to evacuate foreigners, and yesterday 3 military Jordanian planes landed in Beirut airport carrying medical supplies, from another side a truck carrying medical supplies from the Emirates was hit near the Syrian border, killing the driver and burning the whole load. The safe passages are extremely important if enough aid will reach the trapped civilians. Those are supposed to be through the Northern Syrian border, Beirut, Tripoli and Tyre harbors in addition to Beirut airport. Till now we hear that some of those passages are agreed upon but the mechanism about how those locations are going to function is not clear yet.

Casualties among civilians are increasing everyday, and last night the planes targeted the city of Tyre with intensive raids.

Concerning the southern camps, the influx of Lebanese families is still flowing towards Rashidieyeh and Burj el-Shemali, while from another side about 30% of the residents fled those camps towards Saida, Beirut or outside Lebanon. In Rashidieyeh we were informed that a lot of families evacuated women and children, food is available but is decreasing and the stock is not replaced, sometimes they had to risk sending supplies to Burj el-Shemali who is suffering from more food shortage being a very poor camp, plus the fact that they have no bakery inside the camp. Burj el-Shemali sheltered 118 Lebanese families most of them hosted by Palestinian families sharing them whatever meager food supplies they have. There is no electricity inside the camp and the fuel for generators was all consumed, because of this they cannot pump water to the houses anymore, so using ropes and buckets is the only way now. Of course around both camps air raids are continuous, and last night's bombardment against Tyre shocked the inhabitants a lot. It is quite obvious that those who are left behind both Palestinians and Lebanese are mainly the most poor families who have no transportation means and cannot afford the high prices asked by some drivers which is reaching 200$ sometimes.
Planes are moving all night over Beirut and the Christian enclave in the mountains creating fear and frustration among civilians, war is also psychological….

The only positive thing we can notice is the unity of the Lebanese people from all sects against this calamity. People in all areas are receiving displaced families giving them whatever help they can.

Your solidarity gives us hope; enormous pressure is needed for ceasefire and the opening of safe passages.

NISCVT

Ja vielä toinen viesti, jossa yritetään välittää tavallisten ihmisten raskaista kokemuksia.

27.7.
Dear friends,

Stories of human sufferings are the most abundant commodities those days. It is not strange to find children, women elderly and sick people sleeping under trees all along the available roads from the south till the north of Lebanon, those who are lucky are packed inside schools classrooms. Every family has a tragic story to tell and most children saw terrible scenes that can never be erased from their memories. Everywhere you find horrified people asking about family members who were left behind under fire or lost, killed or injured during fleeing. I'll try to shed some light on those human sufferings. Maybe it would push I don't know how towards a kind of solution.

An incredible story came from Tyre…one hundred dead bodies inside the fridges, with known names, known villages and known families who could not reach the hospital to bury their dead, so the hospital who is badly in need for the fridges, buried those people in the hospital's courtyard Yousef Zien who came to ask about the destiny of his brother Mounir and family discovered that the whole family, 4 kids with the father and mother, were killed and buried in this spot.

"For ten days we lived inside the eyelid of death", said Fatima, she fled with her husband and six children ( ages 3-17) from their village in Qana the village were more than two hundred people were slaughtered in 1996 by an Israeli air raid, when they took refuge at the UNIFL quarters. Fatima tells her story: "We tried not to leave our house…for ten days the bombardment never stopped so many houses were destroyed around us, I put each of my children in a corner giving them whatever little food left with my heart burning like fire. I used to go around taking each one to my breast wondering with great pain which one am I going to loose first, which one I will see torn into pieces in front my eyes….dear God I cannot bear to see one of my kids with torn hands or torn legs…finally we decided to leave…stepping outside the house we met the milk man who offered to carry us with his car…It was the most dreadful journey that any one can imagine….on the road cars were burning with people still inside…rockets falling like rain among the fleeing cars and people running on foot…it was mere luck if you stayed alive…I couldn't believe the scenes I saw…the most dreadful an old man running on a motor bike was hit, his leg was cut off  and he was shacking on the ground like a slaughtered chicken begging for help and no car dared to stop and give him a hand...even the red cross car couldn't stop due to the heavy bombardment…Fatima hugged her little daughter who was still in a state of shock…we are safe  in Beirut now all I ask from God only to protect my children…Please God take every single thing I own but keep my children safe….
 
One cannot stop wondering what the Israelis are doing!!!! If really they want peace what kind of peace they are looking for while surrounding themselves with extreme pain, anger and hate, can any one expect secured life and safety surrounded by burnt lands??? What kind of logic is that???

NISCVT