Three-day bombardment of camp cuts off vital aid supplies to terrified residents

Report, Electronic Lebanon, 3 June 2007

"NAHR AL-BARED, 3 June 2007 (IRIN) - Aid agencies and emergency services have been unable to access the besieged Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon for three days to either evacuate the injured or deliver vital supplies of water and food to trapped residents.

"If we don't get into camp today or tomorrow the situation will be really critical," Dr Yousef Assad of the Palestine Red Crescent (PRC) told IRIN on Saturday. The PRC is the only emergency service that has been evacuating civilians from inside the camp. "We are sure there are lots of civilians injured and we need to help them. This is our only concern. Our distribution network for medical supplies inside the camp has completely broken down."

Assad added they had reports that around a hundred civilians had been trapped under rubble in an underground bunker after their building was hit and collapsed on top of them.

Up to 8,000 civilians are caught in the midst of the most intense fighting so far of a two-week standoff between the Lebanese army and Fatah al-Islam, a radical Islamist group based in the camp that has up to 200 armed men of various Arab nationalities....."