Palestinians in refugee camps in Lebanon fear for their lives

The Aïn El-Hilweh camp was targeted by an Israeli strike last week, killing 5 people.

One year ago today, the day after Hamas attacks in Israel, Hezbollah opened a front from southern Lebanon against Israel. From the explosion of Hezbollah’s pagers to the elimination of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, over the past two weeks, the war between Israel and Lebanon has reached a milestone. A situation which worries the more than 100,000 Palestinians who crowd into the narrow streets of the Aïn El-Hilweh camp.

To enter the Aïn El-Hilweh camp, in the town of Saïda, about forty kilometers south of Beirut, you must first pass through two Lebanese army checkpoints. Sitting in a grocery store, Khadija, with a scarf on her head, explains that she was 9 months old in 1948, during the Nakba, when her family had to leave their home, south of the city of Haifa. “Our house is still there, she said. It had two floors, they redid it, now there are five. The Israelis built a highway on our land. All around, they opened stores. We were rich, we had sheep and grapes.”

Iman, 54, was born in the camp, but still holds out hope of one day returning to Palestine. “I will never feel at home here, she confides. I was born here in Lebanon and raised here, but I am Palestinian.” She deplores the living conditions of Palestinians in Lebanon: “We live under siege, she describes. As Palestinians we have to fight every day. Particularly in the camps, there are no rights. The camp is crowded, the houses are on top of each other. We do not have the right to work. Young people who study cannot find suitable work.”

Last week, Tuesday October 1, the camp was targeted by an Israeli strike. Toll: 5 dead. “We are used to it”says Iman. By 1982, Israel had done much worse than that, she said.