Gunfire stops rescue

Press, 29 May 1985, Page 10

Gunfire stops rescue

NZPA-AP Beirut A Red Cross team rescued 14 wounded Palestinians under fire from a Beirut refugee camp yesterday but had to leave scores of others behind when Shi’ite Muslims and Palestinian guerrillas ended a shaky cease-fire. Palestinian spokesmen said that Shi’ite Amal fighters had stopped the ambulances on their way out of the Bourj el-Brajneh camp and beat up some of

the wounded at a checkpoint near the camp’s entrance. Reporters and photographers were not allowed to approach the Red Cross vehicles. But one photographer saw from a distance militiamen cocking their rifles and pounding on the ambulances with their weapons and fists. He could not tell whether any of the wounded were beaten up. A Lebanese gunman at

the scene later said: “Yes. It’s true. They beat them up. I can-say no more.” Red Cross officials could not be reached for comment. Only six ambulances of a 17-vehicle convoy got into the shell-battered Bourj elBrajneh camp. They raced out 30 minutes later with bullets whizzing overhead when the truce called to aid their mercy mission broke down.