Christian Aid Partner Closes Nursery after Israeli Attack

A Christian Aid partner in Lebanon has been forced to close the nursery it runs for Palestinian refugees after an Israeli missile attack on Tuesday night.

|TOP|Israeli’s military shelled Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp, the Ein el-Hilweh camp on the outskirts of Sidon, in the early hours of Wednesday morning, leaving at least one person dead.

Ein el-Hilweh is the largest of Lebanon’s 12 Palestinian refugee camps, housing around 75,000 Palestinian refugees and their descendents who were left homeless by the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

Kadija Abdelal works for Christian Aid partner Najdeh, an organisation that supports Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. He said staff and residents in the camp were afraid it would be the target of Israeli bombing again.

“We have a kindergarten here for 83 children and today we were going to open it up and welcome more children from Lebanese families who have run from the fighting further south and who are also now staying at this camp,” said Ms Abdelal.|AD|

“But the kindergarten is near where the missile struck and it has been damaged. So we have closed it.”

She added that around 25 families who had come to escape from fighting further in the south had run away. “No one knows where they have gone,” she said.

According to media reports, the Ein el-Hilweh camp has been the scene of years of bombings, assassinations and shootings as rival factions in the camp vie for control. It is also believed to be a haven for fugitives wanted by Lebanese authorities and militant groups.

Some 350,000 Palestinians live in refugee camps in Lebanon that have developed into large shanty towns over the years.

Israeli troops seized the Christian towns of Marjayoun and Qlaiah in south Lebanon on Thursday, according to witnesses, despite assurances from Israel that it has held off plans to expand its offensive against Hezbollah guerrillas.