Word: sidon
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Israel promised that "efforts to reach diplomatic agreements will continue," even as the Peres government laid out the broad thrust of the withdrawal scheme. The first installment of the pullout calls for the Israelis to leave the northwestern sector of occupied territory, around the city of Sidon and along the Awali River, within five weeks. The troops will redeploy from their current lines about 25 miles inside Lebanon to a point between the Zahrani and Litani rivers, anywhere from seven to 20 miles to the south. An exact timetable will be submitted in advance to the Gemayel government...
...early test of southern Lebanon's stability could come in the city of Sidon (pop. 200,000), one of the first sites to be abandoned by the Israelis in the withdrawal. Sidon's population is preponderantly Sunni Muslim. To the north, the city is flanked by Christian hillside communities, to the south by Shi'ites. Almost in the center of Sidon lies the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein el Helweh, with 40,000 inhabitants...
...Major General Ori Orr, head of Israel's Northern Command: "I prefer to leave that problem to Amin Gemayel." The chances that the Lebanese Army could step in successfully under such chaotic circumstances are thought to be negligible. Partisan militiamen, for example, control the heights overlooking the road between Sidon and Beirut, and that link could be easily cut in the event of an upheaval. Said a Western diplomat in Beirut: "The Israeli withdrawal could throw the whole of Lebanon into chaos. It only needs a serious clash in this city or major problems in the south...
...since the Israeli army in Lebanon withdrew from the Beirut area south to the Awali River a year ago, 60 soldiers have been killed and 469 wounded in Lebanese attacks. Every month brings about 70 to 80 new assaults. "We are on a spiral to nowhere," says a prominent Sidon citizen. "The more the Israelis are attacked, the more repressive they become, and that only leads to more desperation and attacks...
...south. Beirutis wishing to visit the occupied area must ask relatives or friends living in the south to obtain the documents for them. The rules sometimes discriminate: Muslims are forced to travel through the mobbed Batir checkpoint, whereas Christians can take a ferry from Jiyah, north of Sidon, to East Beirut. What used to be a 40-minute taxi ride between Beirut and Sidon is now a journey that takes hours, even days...