Lebanon's long-suffering Palestinians are now facing a new refugee crisis. In the past few weeks, more than 18,000 people have fled to the Badawi refugee camp to escape fighting at the nearby Nahr el-Bared camp. 27,000 people are now crammed into this tiny patch of northern Lebanon. 14-year-old Mahmoud and his relatives are now squeezed into schoolrooms at the Badawi camp.
MAHMOUD, (Translation): There are five families here. Five families. They sleep here every day but they aren't getting the basic necessities.
67-year-old Amina broke her shoulder during the shelling two weeks ago but she can't afford treatment.
AMINA, (Translation): A missile hit our house, and I fell on the ground.
MAN, (Translation): Does it hurt? Is it painful?
AMINA, (Translation): Very. Come inside and look.
Oh, you poor thing.
This is Nahr el-Bared camp, where Amina and Mahmoud used to live. Militants who sympathise with al-Qaeda based themselves here last year, and in March they attacked a Lebanese army checkpoint. The army responded by shelling the camp. Thousands of Palestinian civilians fled with nothing but the clothes on their back - refugees from a refugee camp. Palestinians have always been at the bottom of the pile in Lebanon.
MAHMOUD, (Translation): That's the map of Palestine. It has the Palestinian cities and the refugee camps. In 1948, they were displaced to here, to Lebanon and to Jordan, Syria and the Arab countries.
60 years after they arrived the 400,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon remain non-citizens, and they're forbidden from owning property. Despite being born and bred in Lebanon, these children are raised on the belief that one day they'll go home.
MAHMOUD'S FRIEND, (Translation): I drew the mosque, the Jerusalem Mosque because we love it a lot. And also the flag, because it's our country and we won't give it up.
REPORTER: Why do you have such strong feelings about a place you've never seen?
MAHMOUD'S FRIEND, (Translation): I love it because my grandfathers told me about it.
90-year-old Subhiyah still hasn't given up on returning to Palestine.
SUBHIYAH, (Translation): Of course not! Who wouldn't want to go back? Give us the word and I'll walk back barefooted. Right now. I know the route back.
Palestinians in Lebanon are also banned from working in over 70 professions. Motassa studied in Libya but isn't allowed to use his skills here.
MOTASSA, (Translation): I graduated in '94 in military aviation mechanics but I'm can't work because I'm Palestinian.
REPORTER: So what kind of jobs are Palestinians allowed to do?
MOTASSA, (Translation): Hard labour only.
The atmosphere at Badawi camp is tense and when gunshots are heard outside, everyone panics. It turns out to be just a dispute between neighbours. In reality, the refugees who made it here are the lucky ones.
The fighting between the Lebanese Army and Fatah al-Islam is now entering its third week. Today the fighting is quite intense, the most it's been for quite a few days. The Lebanese army has vowed to finish off this group within the next two days. But the problem is that I've just spoken to the Red Cross and apparently there are still 5,000 Palestinian refugees trapped inside the camp - people who can't get out, perhaps they are sick, perhaps they're elderly. So the problem of what is going to happen to these 5,000 Palestinians still remains to be seen.
It's almost impossible to find out what's happening inside Nahr el-Bared. More than 80 Lebanese soldiers have died in the fighting and the army refuses to let reporters film anywhere near the camp. Despite repeated requests from Dateline, neither the army nor the Minister of Defence agreed to be interviewed for this story.
SOLDIER, (Translation): Put the camera down.
Last week the army distributed footage of its soldiers attacking the Nahr el-Bared camp. This battle is a coming of age for the army which stood by while Syrian troops occupied the country, and again last year when Hezbollah battled Israeli forces. Now these soldiers are trying to prove they can defend their homeland. Washington has been quick to respond with political and military support, sending millions of dollars worth of ammunition and other supplies.
SOLDIER, (Translation): Is anyone getting out of the camp today? Are they letting anyone out?
Back at Badawi camp, Mahmoud and Motassa are worried about relatives who are still stuck inside the besieged Nahr el-Bared.
MAN, (Translation): Are you all right over there? Fine, Mahmoud. Take care of yourselves. OK, 'bye. There's bombing.
MAN 2: I can hear the bullets in the phone. The bombing is really loud on the phone - I can hardly hear the guy. He's saying the situation inside is very bad. There's a lot of dead people on the streets that has been there for a long time. The smell is terrible.
Later that night I meet Ziad, who only managed to escape yesterday with his family.
ZIAD, (Translation): They weren't targeting just military positions but the whole of the camp with no discrimination between civilian and military.
MAN 2, (Translation): Is it fair to punish people? The camp houses 40,000 people and they admitted that Fatah al-Islam has only 200 members. There were 40,000 Palestinians. 40,000. Do you punish 40,000 people because of 200?
Ziad says the Palestinians had nothing to do with the mostly foreign Fatah al-Islam militants.
ZIAD, (Translation): They were located in restricted bases. As civilians, we were forbidden from even approaching their locations.
REPORTER:How did you know which people were Fatah al-Islam and which weren't?
ZIAD, (Translation): We could distinguish them by their clothing. Their dress is different from ours. Their dress is Islamic, like Pakistani or Afghani, and of course they have long hair and beards.
The next morning Mahmoud tells me that his father managed to escape from Nahr el-Bared overnight.
Your daddy is here now?
MAHMOUD: This is my daddy.
DAD: Good morning.
REPORTER: Good morning. Mahaba.
DAD: How are you?
REPORTER: Good. Nice to meet you.
DAD: I am, thank you, very well.
REPORTER:I'm glad to hear you're here safe.
DAD: Thank you.
MAHMOUD, (Translation): I came to have dinner and I found him sitting there.
DAD, (Translation): I came out with the International Red Cross under artillery and aerial and rocket launcher shelling.
REPORTER: Is his house OK? What's happened to the family home?
Today the Lebanese army has agreed to stop shelling long enough for the Red Cross to pick up more civilians. Everyone is anxious to see if their relatives made it out safely.
WOMAN, (Translation): We were besieged for a week, eating mouldy bread. Have they no pity?
WOMAN 2, (Translation): Everyone was shelling! It was chaos, and the people cop it. It's the people who are copping it. As we crossed over so the Red Cross could take us the sniper fired just behind us. God had mercy on us. Thank God.
MAN: What happened? What happened? What happened? Ah, it's very difficult to say what happened.
The army is arresting and questioning young men as they flee the camp, and Sheik Ibrahim takes me to meet someone who says was abused by the soldiers.
SHEIK IBRAHIM, (Translation): He's a Muslim and has a beard so they considered him Fatah al-Islam. They tortured him and took him to the Defence Ministry in Beirut.
The Lebanese army released this man last night after five days during which he says he was beaten and tortured. He's too scared to show his face.
MAN, (Translation): Everyone was beating us and beating us. I lost my hearing in the end because of the severe beatings. We'd never had such beatings. It's like there's huge hatred. "We want to f--k the smallest and biggest Palestinian, and your wife, your sister. You Palestinians, we'll slaughter you."
In a recent report Human Rights Watch has said that this kind of abuse is widespread. The Palestinians' accusations of torture and abuse at the hands of the Lebanese army are falling on deaf ears as the Lebanese unite behind their military's new war on terror. In the nearby city of Tripoli, pro-government factions are on their way to a rally in support of the Lebanese army. Mainly Sunni Muslims and Christians, they believe the army's new-found muscle proves there's no need for Hezbollah's Shi'ite army.
YOUNG MAN, (Translation): We came here to prove to the people that we have an army that can protect us.
Here, memories remain of a brutal civil war in the 1970s and '80s that many blame on the Palestinians. I find little sympathy for their plight.
REPORTER: Are you concerned about the number of Palestinian civilians killed during this?
MAN, (Translation): No, no. Frankly, they mean nothing to me.
BOY, (Translation): It's their fault. They allowed Fatah al-Islam to enter the camp.
These are the Fatah al-Islam fighters in Nahr el-Bared. The government has known about their presence in the camp for months, and in March the militants were even interviewed on Lebanese television.
NEWSREADER, (Translation): It is said that you enter and exit Lebanon illegally.
FIGHTER, (Translation): People can say whatever they want but we have had a presence in Lebanon for a long time within the Fatha al- Intifada movement.
Palestinians say the government could have dealt with the militants without waging war on Nahr el-Bared. And many have even wondered if the Sunni-dominated government turned a blind eye to Fatah al-Islam because it too is Sunni. Back at Badawi camp, Motassa has just heard that his uncle, a father of 13, was killed overnight.
MOTASSA, (Translation): We heard that a shell landed at the market entrance but others say it was a sniper. They asked for an ambulance to get him out. It's no different to the Israeli army.
It was a week before Motassa's uncle was buried. The army at first refused to release his body until the family signed documents saying he'd been killed by Fatah al-Islam and not them. Last Friday the anger of the Palestinian refugees boiled over. Fed up with the conditions at Badawi, they decided to hold a protest and demand they be allowed to return to Nahr el-Bared despite the fighting. When they marched towards a Lebanese army checkpoint, the soldiers opened fire. 3 people were killed and around 30 were injured.
REPORTER: Who shot at you?
MAN, (Translation): Who shot me? Ask the army. Ask the Lebanese army. They went from having national respect to just killing Palestinians in the street.
BOY, (Translation): We went down to the protest to ask them to stop bombing the camp and to stop surrounding it.
YOUNG MAN, (Translation): Look, I want to tell you something - every blood drop we lost we are going to return it. Spread this in all the media. If they want to consider me as Osama bin Laden, then fine, I want to be wanted. Starting from today. That's it.
Credits
Reporter/Camera
SOPHIE MCNEILL
Editors
NICK O'BRIEN
MICAH MCGOWAN
Subtitling
JOSEPH ABDO
Production Company
SBS Dateline
MAHMOUD, (Translation): There are five families here. Five families. They sleep here every day but they aren't getting the basic necessities.
67-year-old Amina broke her shoulder during the shelling two weeks ago but she can't afford treatment.
AMINA, (Translation): A missile hit our house, and I fell on the ground.
MAN, (Translation): Does it hurt? Is it painful?
AMINA, (Translation): Very. Come inside and look.
Oh, you poor thing.
This is Nahr el-Bared camp, where Amina and Mahmoud used to live. Militants who sympathise with al-Qaeda based themselves here last year, and in March they attacked a Lebanese army checkpoint. The army responded by shelling the camp. Thousands of Palestinian civilians fled with nothing but the clothes on their back - refugees from a refugee camp. Palestinians have always been at the bottom of the pile in Lebanon.
MAHMOUD, (Translation): That's the map of Palestine. It has the Palestinian cities and the refugee camps. In 1948, they were displaced to here, to Lebanon and to Jordan, Syria and the Arab countries.
60 years after they arrived the 400,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon remain non-citizens, and they're forbidden from owning property. Despite being born and bred in Lebanon, these children are raised on the belief that one day they'll go home.
MAHMOUD'S FRIEND, (Translation): I drew the mosque, the Jerusalem Mosque because we love it a lot. And also the flag, because it's our country and we won't give it up.
REPORTER: Why do you have such strong feelings about a place you've never seen?
MAHMOUD'S FRIEND, (Translation): I love it because my grandfathers told me about it.
90-year-old Subhiyah still hasn't given up on returning to Palestine.
SUBHIYAH, (Translation): Of course not! Who wouldn't want to go back? Give us the word and I'll walk back barefooted. Right now. I know the route back.
Palestinians in Lebanon are also banned from working in over 70 professions. Motassa studied in Libya but isn't allowed to use his skills here.
MOTASSA, (Translation): I graduated in '94 in military aviation mechanics but I'm can't work because I'm Palestinian.
REPORTER: So what kind of jobs are Palestinians allowed to do?
MOTASSA, (Translation): Hard labour only.
The atmosphere at Badawi camp is tense and when gunshots are heard outside, everyone panics. It turns out to be just a dispute between neighbours. In reality, the refugees who made it here are the lucky ones.
The fighting between the Lebanese Army and Fatah al-Islam is now entering its third week. Today the fighting is quite intense, the most it's been for quite a few days. The Lebanese army has vowed to finish off this group within the next two days. But the problem is that I've just spoken to the Red Cross and apparently there are still 5,000 Palestinian refugees trapped inside the camp - people who can't get out, perhaps they are sick, perhaps they're elderly. So the problem of what is going to happen to these 5,000 Palestinians still remains to be seen.
It's almost impossible to find out what's happening inside Nahr el-Bared. More than 80 Lebanese soldiers have died in the fighting and the army refuses to let reporters film anywhere near the camp. Despite repeated requests from Dateline, neither the army nor the Minister of Defence agreed to be interviewed for this story.
SOLDIER, (Translation): Put the camera down.
Last week the army distributed footage of its soldiers attacking the Nahr el-Bared camp. This battle is a coming of age for the army which stood by while Syrian troops occupied the country, and again last year when Hezbollah battled Israeli forces. Now these soldiers are trying to prove they can defend their homeland. Washington has been quick to respond with political and military support, sending millions of dollars worth of ammunition and other supplies.
SOLDIER, (Translation): Is anyone getting out of the camp today? Are they letting anyone out?
Back at Badawi camp, Mahmoud and Motassa are worried about relatives who are still stuck inside the besieged Nahr el-Bared.
MAN, (Translation): Are you all right over there? Fine, Mahmoud. Take care of yourselves. OK, 'bye. There's bombing.
MAN 2: I can hear the bullets in the phone. The bombing is really loud on the phone - I can hardly hear the guy. He's saying the situation inside is very bad. There's a lot of dead people on the streets that has been there for a long time. The smell is terrible.
Later that night I meet Ziad, who only managed to escape yesterday with his family.
ZIAD, (Translation): They weren't targeting just military positions but the whole of the camp with no discrimination between civilian and military.
MAN 2, (Translation): Is it fair to punish people? The camp houses 40,000 people and they admitted that Fatah al-Islam has only 200 members. There were 40,000 Palestinians. 40,000. Do you punish 40,000 people because of 200?
Ziad says the Palestinians had nothing to do with the mostly foreign Fatah al-Islam militants.
ZIAD, (Translation): They were located in restricted bases. As civilians, we were forbidden from even approaching their locations.
REPORTER:How did you know which people were Fatah al-Islam and which weren't?
ZIAD, (Translation): We could distinguish them by their clothing. Their dress is different from ours. Their dress is Islamic, like Pakistani or Afghani, and of course they have long hair and beards.
The next morning Mahmoud tells me that his father managed to escape from Nahr el-Bared overnight.
Your daddy is here now?
MAHMOUD: This is my daddy.
DAD: Good morning.
REPORTER: Good morning. Mahaba.
DAD: How are you?
REPORTER: Good. Nice to meet you.
DAD: I am, thank you, very well.
REPORTER:I'm glad to hear you're here safe.
DAD: Thank you.
MAHMOUD, (Translation): I came to have dinner and I found him sitting there.
DAD, (Translation): I came out with the International Red Cross under artillery and aerial and rocket launcher shelling.
REPORTER: Is his house OK? What's happened to the family home?
Today the Lebanese army has agreed to stop shelling long enough for the Red Cross to pick up more civilians. Everyone is anxious to see if their relatives made it out safely.
WOMAN, (Translation): We were besieged for a week, eating mouldy bread. Have they no pity?
WOMAN 2, (Translation): Everyone was shelling! It was chaos, and the people cop it. It's the people who are copping it. As we crossed over so the Red Cross could take us the sniper fired just behind us. God had mercy on us. Thank God.
MAN: What happened? What happened? What happened? Ah, it's very difficult to say what happened.
The army is arresting and questioning young men as they flee the camp, and Sheik Ibrahim takes me to meet someone who says was abused by the soldiers.
SHEIK IBRAHIM, (Translation): He's a Muslim and has a beard so they considered him Fatah al-Islam. They tortured him and took him to the Defence Ministry in Beirut.
The Lebanese army released this man last night after five days during which he says he was beaten and tortured. He's too scared to show his face.
MAN, (Translation): Everyone was beating us and beating us. I lost my hearing in the end because of the severe beatings. We'd never had such beatings. It's like there's huge hatred. "We want to f--k the smallest and biggest Palestinian, and your wife, your sister. You Palestinians, we'll slaughter you."
In a recent report Human Rights Watch has said that this kind of abuse is widespread. The Palestinians' accusations of torture and abuse at the hands of the Lebanese army are falling on deaf ears as the Lebanese unite behind their military's new war on terror. In the nearby city of Tripoli, pro-government factions are on their way to a rally in support of the Lebanese army. Mainly Sunni Muslims and Christians, they believe the army's new-found muscle proves there's no need for Hezbollah's Shi'ite army.
YOUNG MAN, (Translation): We came here to prove to the people that we have an army that can protect us.
Here, memories remain of a brutal civil war in the 1970s and '80s that many blame on the Palestinians. I find little sympathy for their plight.
REPORTER: Are you concerned about the number of Palestinian civilians killed during this?
MAN, (Translation): No, no. Frankly, they mean nothing to me.
BOY, (Translation): It's their fault. They allowed Fatah al-Islam to enter the camp.
These are the Fatah al-Islam fighters in Nahr el-Bared. The government has known about their presence in the camp for months, and in March the militants were even interviewed on Lebanese television.
NEWSREADER, (Translation): It is said that you enter and exit Lebanon illegally.
FIGHTER, (Translation): People can say whatever they want but we have had a presence in Lebanon for a long time within the Fatha al- Intifada movement.
Palestinians say the government could have dealt with the militants without waging war on Nahr el-Bared. And many have even wondered if the Sunni-dominated government turned a blind eye to Fatah al-Islam because it too is Sunni. Back at Badawi camp, Motassa has just heard that his uncle, a father of 13, was killed overnight.
MOTASSA, (Translation): We heard that a shell landed at the market entrance but others say it was a sniper. They asked for an ambulance to get him out. It's no different to the Israeli army.
It was a week before Motassa's uncle was buried. The army at first refused to release his body until the family signed documents saying he'd been killed by Fatah al-Islam and not them. Last Friday the anger of the Palestinian refugees boiled over. Fed up with the conditions at Badawi, they decided to hold a protest and demand they be allowed to return to Nahr el-Bared despite the fighting. When they marched towards a Lebanese army checkpoint, the soldiers opened fire. 3 people were killed and around 30 were injured.
REPORTER: Who shot at you?
MAN, (Translation): Who shot me? Ask the army. Ask the Lebanese army. They went from having national respect to just killing Palestinians in the street.
BOY, (Translation): We went down to the protest to ask them to stop bombing the camp and to stop surrounding it.
YOUNG MAN, (Translation): Look, I want to tell you something - every blood drop we lost we are going to return it. Spread this in all the media. If they want to consider me as Osama bin Laden, then fine, I want to be wanted. Starting from today. That's it.
Credits
Reporter/Camera
SOPHIE MCNEILL
Editors
NICK O'BRIEN
MICAH MCGOWAN
Subtitling
JOSEPH ABDO
Production Company
SBS Dateline