interviews: on the way to Tyre, near Qana, the plane raided on us

date: August 17, 2006
interviewer: Mahmoud Zeidan

Hussein Ali Amer

Date: 14 August, 2006
Age: 28
Place of Origin: Qleileh
Occupation: mechanic
Present address: UNRWA Mintar School Ein el Helweh camp

Context: Mahmoud was visiting the UNRWA Mintar School Ein el Helweh Camp, and interviewed Hussein Ali Amer. He accepted on a condition not to speak in front of other people, as his brother-in-law has been killed, and his wife and her family have not been told yet.

Q: Please tell me what happened to you?
A: We were listening to news after Hezbollah’s operation, so I told my wife, ‘I feel something bad would happen.’ Israel started to bomb. I asked my wife to leave the house and go to my uncle’s house. We left the first day, but Israel started to bomb the peripheries of the village. We got scared. We were 5 families. My uncle’s family were the first to leave the place. I stayed with my wife and her brother till the second day. The situation worsened. Israel started bombing the village; they bombed a three story building in the middle of the village and put it to earth. I asked my brother-in-law to take my wife to Tyre, and I decided stay in the village. I convinced my wife that I would stay to take some clothes and join her. So my brother-in-law took my wife to Tyre and came back to stay with me.

We hid in a basement store in my uncle’s building. We stayed there four days. The fifth day, our house was bombed. I went to get some clothes, but I couldn’t find anything. It was rubble. I told my brother-in-law the situation would deteriorate more, so we had to go to Tyre, and he agreed. Another family joined us. On the way to Tyre, near Qana, the plane raided on us, and my brother-in-law (25) was killed by a shrapnel in the head.

(Hussein burst into tears and took time to resume speaking. He said he wanted to cry because he couldn’t cry in front of his mother-in-law and wife; they still don’t know about their son’s death)

After 15 min an ambulance arrived and took him. We begged the journalists and the TV stations not to mention his name among the dead people so that his relatives wouldn’t tell his family. And they buried him with the martyrs. After he was buried, I went to my wife in Haji Mariam School at Bus. We stayed there four days, but nobody looked at us or brought us something to sleep on. The people of the camp knew about our situation, so they collected mattresses and covers from their houses and gave us everything. When my boss at work knew I was in a school, he asked me to come and stay with him in his apartment. I did. In two days, a building next to where we stayed was bombed. So my boss left the apartment by his car. We were 20 people. So we told him we would follow him. After 15 min, we went to Bus round-about. We couldn’t afford the cost of a taxi. I saw a taxi, but the driver asked for 250,000LL. Another driver asked for $100. I said I didn’t have money, and I asked the man to do humanitarian favour and take us. Suddenly someone, who was standing beside, heard what was going on. He gave me $100. I asked him about his name to give him the money back, but he refused.

We took the taxi to Saida. The municipality registered us. We waited 3 hours, but nobody looked at us. After I waited at Nijmeh square, a driver asked me where I am from. He was Palestinian. I told him from the south. He asked me to go in the taxi with him, and he brought me to Ein el Helweh camp. My wife’s aunt lives here in the camp. We never visited her. We gave the name of her husband to someone, and then they came and put us in this school. To be honest I was afraid in the beginning to enter the camp because I had never been in a camp before. But when we entered and saw, it was completely different from what we used to hear.

Q: Was anybody else killed in that bomb?
A: There was another woman who was killed in the bomb. She was in a Mazda car behind us; I think a stone hit her head.

Q: Where do you live in Qleileh?
A: In the middle of the village.

Q: Why do you think your house was bombed?
A: Because Israel hasn’t spared any civilians. It targets civilians. It also bombs on public places. They bombed the mosque, the municipality and the electricity towers in the village.

Q: Could you notice anything specific about the bombs?
A: They smell very bad. After the smoke disappeared, we felt there was very bad smell, and we were choked by that strange smoke.

Q: Did anybody come to rescue you?
A: The civil defence came in the beginning.

Q: Were you warned by Israel to leave your houses before they were bombed?
A: No.

Q: What do you think of your presence here in Ein el Helweh camp?
A: It’s a disgrace for someone who enters the camp to say he is displaced… People here didn’t let us feel in need for anything. They bring us everything, and they come to sit with us, play with us, and take us to the market (souk).

Q: What did you used to hear about the camp?
A: Palestinians open their hearts and houses for us… They preserved our dignity. When I pass by people here, they greet me and respect me. Once I was walking with my friend from the camp in the souk; his uncle is a barber. He asked me to have my hair cut, but I refused because I didn’t have money. I just said I didn’t want a haircut. But he insisted, so I accepted under his pressure. When I finished, I just asked how much he wanted, but he didn’t accept any money. On the contrary, he offered to give me money and asked me if I needed anything more. I thanked him and left. The next day, he sent me some money with his son. I don’t know how to thank the Palestinian people. I went around and visited my relatives in other centers for displaced people in Saida. I encouraged them to come to the camp because they didn’t have sufficient food where they stayed. Some of them were afraid to come with me. I told them you would regret it. And told them they would see when we returned to our village what the people of Ein el Helweh camp did for us. If I were to choose now, I would come and live in the camp because people here are very kind and generous and everything here is so cheap.

Q: Thanks.
A: Welcome.

Abla Darwish

Date: 14 August, 2006
Age: 21
Place of Origin: Qleileh
Occupation: household
Present address: UNRWA Mintar School Ein el Helweh camp

Q: Tell me how do you see your presence here in Ein el Helweh camp?
A: I was in Qleileh. We had a bitter time there: no bread. People sold 12 loaves for 4000LL. We were under siege for 10 days. May God defeat Israel; it deprived me of my brothers and family. We could hardly escape to Tyre. There life was disgusting. It was over crowded; too many people. When I arrived there, I saw a woman that I didn’t know. She brought me food, pajamas and shoes. After that I was surprised that she was Palestinian. I thought she was displaced like me. Then we suffered to leave there and come to Saida. They charged us $50 per passenger. We were too many people in the same car.

Warships and planes were bombing. We didn’t know where to escape. I arrived to Saida with my husband, sons and my family. It was my first time at Nijmeh square. We went to a school run by the Hariri Foundation. They said there was no room for us there though our appearance raised pity. They didn’t accept even to host us temporarily to find another place. So we stayed in the street. Until a driver took us to Ein el Helweh camp. He even didn’t accept any money. When he heard our story, he called on some youths, who opened the school for us.

People received us well. The driver brought us mattresses and covers from his house. Then he took my children to have showers in his house. When they knew we, men and women, were sleeping in the same room, they removed the curtains from their houses and fixed them here in the classroom to separate between men and women. Then they brought boxes full of canned food and chocolate for the children. When I saw this I started to cry.

They asked me not to cry and said, "you are not displaced here; we are your guests in this country.” The next day I wanted to buy vegetables and fruit from the market (souk), they surprised me early in the morning coming with everything: food, milk and pampers for my son. We begged them not to bring anything because the room was full with food and everything. And we knew they were bringing this from their homes. Another day my son got sick. Someone took him, cut his hair, gave him a shower and took him to the hospital. When he brought him back to me, he gave him sandwiches, water, juice and chocolate. I was out. When I came back to my room, I found out that women from the camp washed the pots and dishes and cleaned the room. They also took my husband’s clothes to wash them at their homes. My son consumes one pack of pampers every 15 days; in one day, they brought him three packs.

I don’t know what to say? I just want to thank the Palestinian people in all the camps and pray for God to protect them.

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