Word: lebanon
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...South Lebanon is no stranger to bloodshed and violence. The last time Israel launched a punishing offensive against its Hizballah enemies was in April 1996 with Operation Grapes of Wrath. In that two-week campaign of air strikes, some 170 Lebanese civilians were killed. But that grim figure was reached after only five days of Operation Just Desserts, and the evidence of the destruction wrought on this hilly region of citrus orchards, tobacco fields and olive groves can be found in the teeming corridors of the Jabel Amel hospital...
...United Nations peacekeepers (known by their acronym of UNIFIL) deployed along Lebanon's border with Israel describe the area as an Israeli free-fire zone, with any vehicle traveling along the roads at risk. On Friday, 16 residents of the tiny border hamlet of Marwahine, 12 miles from the coast, were killed when an Israeli helicopter rocketed their convoy, destroying two vehicles as they fled for the relative safety of Tyre. The next day, a UNIFIL relief column which was attempting to rescue beleaguered residents of Marwahine and nearby villages came under Israeli shellfire, with 12 155mm rounds exploding nearby...
...week, it took little less than an hour to reach Tyre from Beirut, a speedy cruise down the coastal highway past the banana plantations and orange groves that fill the narrow littoral wedged between the Mediterranean sea and the Lebanese mountains. Not any more. After Israel's onslaught against Lebanon began last Wednesday, the southern portion of the country was quickly sealed off after all the bridges crossing the Litani river, which runs across much of southern Lebanon, were destroyed and roads cratered, making them impassable...
...unnerving drive along a narrow road that bends and dips into the Litani valley eventually leads to a dusty causeway, constructed within the previous 24 hours, which crosses the river. It is a single lifeline connecting south Lebanon to the rest of the world, a fragile means of escape for despairing and frightened southerners - and an entry point for reporters eager to see firsthand this most recent outbreak of ancient history...
...press that the Western evacuation is getting, there's another group of refugees that isn't being noticed. Lebanon has a large population of Iraqis, Sudanese and Somalis, as well as guest workers from the Philippines and Sri Lanka, who are too poor to pay their way out. And their governments are either ineffective (Iraq, Sudan) inattentive (the Philippines, Sri Lanka) or non-existent (Somalia), and have not offered any resources for these people...