Truce holds in besieged Palestinian refugee camp

Hundreds of Palestinian civilians carrying their belongings in plastic bags trickled out of a besieged refugee camp in the Lebanon today after a truce in the fighting mostly held overnight.

About 15,000 – nearly half the camp’s residents – fled late at night when the lull took hold between Lebanese troops and Islamic militants barricaded in the crowded Nahr el-Bared refugee camp near Tripoli, relief officials said. About 1,000 fled this morning.

Those fleeing reported bodies littering the camp’s streets and scenes of blasted buildings and destruction. Officials said the bodies of at least 20 civilians had been retrieved from inside.

“It’s very tense,” said Rania Mustafa, 23, holding the hand of a child and carrying a baby in her arms. Other women carrying children were seen stepping over broken glass and rubbish and walking around wrecked cars.

But it was unclear how long the truce would hold, and there were fears that allowing civilians out could be a prelude for a major showdown.

Fatah Islam, which took up residence in the camp late last year, has vowed to fight a “life or death battle,” and the Lebanese government has said it’s determined to uproot the militant Fatah Islam. Today, the army reinforced its positions around the camp.

John Holmes, the UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, appealed for humanitarian access and warned that no successful steps had been taken to ensure that civilians received aid.

He also called yesterday’s attack on an a UN Relief and Works Agency convoy “outrageous and completely unacceptable”. The convoy had come under fire as UN workers tried to deliver food and water to residents in Nagr el-Bared, home to 31,000 refugees.

Many of the fleeing refugees have moved to a nearby Palestinian refugee camp at Beddawi, where UN relief officials and local provided shelter, mattresses, food and water.

Twenty-nine soldiers and at least 20 militants have been killed since the battle began on Sunday in the heaviest internal fighting in Lebanon since the 1975-90 civil war.