Lebanese Leave Tyre by the Thousands

Copyright © 2006 National Public Radio®. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

ROBERT SIEGEL, host:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.

MELISSA BLOCK, host:

And I'm Melissa Block.

More fighting, more bombing, more rockets and more casualties. In other words, more of the same today in the Middle East. Israeli troops crossed into Lebanon again, clashing with Hezbollah fighters. There were casualties on both sides. Israeli war planes also carried out more air strikes in Beirut and across southern Lebanon. Israel has been calling on the people of southern Lebanon to evacuate their homes. Coming up, we'll hear about Israel's military objectives and what the public there thinks about the current campaign.

First, this report from NPR's Ivan Watson. He's in Lebanon, and he drove south from Beirut today to the ancient port of Tyre.

IVAN WATSON reporting:

The further south you drive, the more deserted the villages get and the more cars you see jammed with families fleeing north. The drivers often stop to ask for advice on the safest way out.

Unidentified Man #1: (Speaking foreign language)

WATSON: The passengers wave white t-shirts out the windows and tie white rags to the car antennas. It's a desperate signal to the Israeli war planes circling overhead. These Lebanese have ample reason to be worried.

Unidentified Man #1: (Speaking foreign language)

WATSON: What's he saying?

Unidentified Man #2: They bombing the road before ten minutes.

WATSON: Israeli jets have repeatedly bombed the road network in southern Lebanon. The road to Tyre snakes past demolished bridges and bombed gas stations. Cars have to skirt around huge craters in the road.

The town of Tyre itself is almost completely deserted. In the ancient port, several men sat next to idle fishing boats. A 48 year old carpenter named George Atia(ph) said his friends and neighbors have been receiving automated phone calls from the Israeli military with a warning recorded in Arabic.

Mr. GEORGE ATIA (Resident, Tyre): They say to leave, because Israel wants the soldiers of kidnapping, to leave Hezbollah here with missiles or -

WATSON: A large white cruise ship floated out in the bay this afternoon and on the docks, United Nations military observers were trying to organize the evacuation of hundreds of foreign nationals.

(Soundbite of baby crying)

Unidentified Man #3: Ladies with babies, small babies, people injured, then old people and ladies, you (unintelligible) here. And on the other side, the adults without babies, without the man -

(Soundbite of crowd)

WATSON: As the evacuees waited anxiously on the docks, Israeli war planes began bombing a ridge overlooking the town within plain sight of the crowd.

(Soundbite of bomb in distance)

WATSON: What the hell was that?

(Soundbite of bomb in distance)

WATSON: One of the evacuees here was Mahmoud Hijazi(ph), a 16 year old Australian of Lebanese descent who was vacationing with his family in the border village of Itaroon(ph). He says Israel began shelling the village after Hezbollah fighters fired rockets from hills nearby.

Mr. MAHMOUD HIJAZI (Tyre evacuee): The first three days, I wasn't scared at all because I knew they were hitting only the forests where the Hezbollah fighters would be. And then, but when they started hitting the houses, between the houses, that's when I got scared because, like, I'm not used to war or anything.

WATSON: Hijazi says before he fled Itaroon three days ago, eight members of a single family were killed in an Israeli air strike.

Mr. HIJAZI: I had a couple of close calls as well. The first of the hit, we were on the river. They hit the bridge right next to us 20 meters away.

WATSON: Hijazi says the UN chartered ship out on the bay was now his only hope to escape the war.

Mr. HIJAZI: That right there, that's my life on water. That's my life. If I get on that, you know -

WATSON: An orange lifeboat approached to ferry passengers out to the ship. Soldiers begin boarding the evacuees, women and children first.

(Soundbite of crowd)

WATSON: These were the lucky ones. At Herron(ph) Hospital on the other side of town, several hundred people have taken shelter from the air strikes in a sweltering basement, sleeping on pieces of cardboard.

(Soundbite of crowd)

WATSON: One of the people hiding here is Trema Fernando(ph), a maid from Sri Lanka.

Ms. TREMA FERNANDO (Tyre Evacuee): I think we will die like that. (Unintelligible) the people altogether stay in. Me, I won't to go back very far (unintelligible) stay here. (Unintelligible) make me helpless.

WATSON: Doctors here say since the fighting began, Tyre's hospitals have received more than 300 wounded and 102 dead.

Ivan Watson, NPR News. Tyre, Lebanon.

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