Word: tyre
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Hundreds of Palestinian refugees sat disconsolately under makeshift tents in the dusty, grubby Beirut park that goes by the absurdly fancy name of Garden of the Arts. Among them was Nefalah Farour, 38, who had fled the P.L.O.-dominated port of Tyre on the first day of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Accompanied by five of her seven children, she had walked through the mountains to the dubious safety of Beirut. Exhausted, she squatted on a flattened cardboard box and fretted over the fate of the two youngsters she had been obliged to leave behind in her flight from...
Within 48 hours, many of the P.L.O.'s fixed positions and much of its long-range Soviet-built artillery had been eliminated from southern Lebanon. But the P.L.O. put up fierce resistance and remained an organized military force, confronting the Israelis in Sidon and Tyre while blocking their advance at Damur. Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin flew by helicopter into 800-year-old Beaufort Castle, a stone-walled mountaintop fortress from which the P.L.O. had often directed fire at northern Israel...
Then, after its rapid advances, the Israeli drive stalled. Syria rushed some 35,000 reinforcements into Lebanon. P.L.O. guerrillas, operating in and around the coastal towns of Tyre, Sidon and Damur, mounted a stubborn defense. Armed Palestinians and left-wing militia were holed up in thousands of apartments in west Beirut, vowing to resist to the death. Warned P.L.O. Spokesman Bassam Abu Sherif: "They can raid and shell Beirut until they destroy this city, but the Israelis will never enter Beirut. We will fight street to street, house to house, and we will defeat Begin in Beirut." Indeed, the P.L.O...
...P.L.O. forces north of the Litani River, 18 miles beyond the Israeli border. Despite the presence of some 7,000 U.N. peacekeeping forces (UNIFIL) sent into southern Lebanon in 1978 to help preserve a fragile peace (see box), the P.L.O. was able to set up a stronghold in Tyre, outside UNIFIL'S jurisdiction, from which it could shell northern Israel. A year ago, a top Begin aide boasted that one day Israel would so cripple the P.L.O. that its leaders would be comparable to "the White Russians who sat in Paris cafes after the Bolshevik revolution...
...coastal assault began swiftly as the invading column, including some 100 tanks and an equal number of personnel carriers, closed in on the port of Tyre. At the same time, Israeli landing craft and helicopters surprised the defend ers by placing troops and even tanks as far north as the Zahrani River, 30 miles north of the border. P.L.O. guerrillas held their positions as long as they could and then dispersed. Some stayed in Tyre, while others went to refugee camps or into the hills to do battle as small guerrilla units...