In Lebanon, the dead have to wait

By Hassan M. Fattah

07/21/06 "New York Times" -- - - TYRE, Lebanon Carpenters are running out of wood for coffins.

Bodies are stacked three or four high in a truck at the hospital morgue. The stench is spreading in the rubble.

The morbid reality of Israel's bombing campaign of the south is reaching almost every corner of this city. Just a few kilometers from the Rest House hotel, where the United Nations was evacuating civilians on Thursday, wild dogs gnawed at the charred remains of a family bombed as they were trying to escape the village of Hosh, officials said.

Officials at the Tyre Government Hospital inside a Palestinian refugee camp said they had counted the bodies of 50 children among the 115 in the refrigerated truck in the morgue, although their count could not be independently confirmed.

Abdelmuhsin al-Husseini, Tyre's mayor, announced Thursday that any bodies not claimed within the next two days by next of kin would be buried temporarily in a mass grave near the morgue until they could receive a proper burial once the fighting ends.

"I am asking the families, if they can come here, to claim the bodies," said Husseini, whose bloodshot eyes hinted at his mad scramble to secure food rations and bring some order to the city.

"Otherwise, we have no choice but to bury them in mass graves."

With the roads and bridges to many surrounding villages bombed out, few families have been able to come to the hospital to claim their dead.

Even if they could make the journey, they fear they would be hit by airstrikes along the way, Husseini said. Emergency workers have been unwilling to risk recovering many bodies strewn along the road. Instead, they have been left to rot.

For those relatives who reach the morgue, conducting a proper burial is impossible while the bombing continues. Many have opted to leave the bodies at the morgue until the conflict ends.

The morgue has had to order more than 100 coffins with special handles to make it easier to remove them from the ground to be reburied later.

"What? He wants a hundred?" a local carpenter said, half shocked, half perplexed. "Where the hell am I going to get enough wood to build that many coffins?"

At the hospital, members of the medical staff now find themselves dealing with the dead more than saving the living.

"This hospital is working like a morgue more than a hospital," said Hala Hijazi, a volunteer whose mother is an anesthesiologist at the hospital. Lately, Hijazi said, she has begun to recognize some of the faces arriving here as the scope of the Israeli bombings has widened. "A lot of the people are from Tyre, and we know some of them," she said of the cadavers.

A pall fell over Tyre on Thursday, as UN peacekeepers loaded more than 600 UN employees, foreigners and Lebanese onto a ferry bound for Cyprus, then promptly packed up their makeshift evacuation center at the Rest House and left for their base in the town of Naqura.

Hundreds descended on the hotel on Wednesday, desperate to board the ferry. Despite fears that many would be left behind, almost all who sought refuge were able to board the ship Thursday.

But as the last UN peacekeepers left town later in the day, those who remained were braced for an even heavier bombardment. There were rumors of an Israeli invasion, and fears of even more casualties.

For Ali and Ahmad al-Ghanam, brothers who have taken shelter in a home just a few blocks from the morgue, the refrigerated truck full of cadavers is a vivid reminder of the attack that killed 23 members of their family.

When Israeli loudspeakers warned residents to evacuate the village of Marwaheen on Saturday, the families packed their belongings and headed for safety. Twenty-four people piled into a pickup truck and drove toward Tyre, with the brothers trailing behind them.

Another group set off for a nearby UN observation post, but were promptly turned away.

As the pickup raced to Tyre, Ali al- Ghanam said, Israeli boats shelled their convoy, hitting the pickup but wounding only the women and children in the back.

Within minutes, however, an Israeli helicopter approached, firing a missile that blew the pickup to pieces as the passengers struggled to jump out, he said. His brother Mohammad, his wife and their six children were killed instantly along with several of their relatives. The only survivor was the brothers' 4-year-old niece, who suffered severe burns to much of her body.

"The dead stayed in the sun for hours until anyone could come and collect them," Ghanam said. "The Israelis can't understand that we are people, too. Should they wonder why so many of us support the resistance?" he said, speaking of Hezbollah.

The 23 bodies are still waiting to be buried. Ghanam said that it would be impossible for them to be buried in their village while the bombing continued.

Holding a funeral is impossible, but even digging a grave could attract fire, he said, assuming the remaining family members were able to return to the village.

The brothers walked to the hospital Thursday to sign documents allowing the hospital to bury the bodies in a mass grave.

TYRE, Lebanon Carpenters are running out of wood for coffins.

Bodies are stacked three or four high in a truck at the hospital morgue. The stench is spreading in the rubble.

The morbid reality of Israel's bombing campaign of the south is reaching almost every corner of this city. Just a few kilometers from the Rest House hotel, where the United Nations was evacuating civilians on Thursday, wild dogs gnawed at the charred remains of a family bombed as they were trying to escape the village of Hosh, officials said.

Officials at the Tyre Government Hospital inside a Palestinian refugee camp said they had counted the bodies of 50 children among the 115 in the refrigerated truck in the morgue, although their count could not be independently confirmed.

Abdelmuhsin al-Husseini, Tyre's mayor, announced Thursday that any bodies not claimed within the next two days by next of kin would be buried temporarily in a mass grave near the morgue until they could receive a proper burial once the fighting ends.

"I am asking the families, if they can come here, to claim the bodies," said Husseini, whose bloodshot eyes hinted at his mad scramble to secure food rations and bring some order to the city.

"Otherwise, we have no choice but to bury them in mass graves."

With the roads and bridges to many surrounding villages bombed out, few families have been able to come to the hospital to claim their dead.

Even if they could make the journey, they fear they would be hit by airstrikes along the way, Husseini said. Emergency workers have been unwilling to risk recovering many bodies strewn along the road. Instead, they have been left to rot.

For those relatives who reach the morgue, conducting a proper burial is impossible while the bombing continues. Many have opted to leave the bodies at the morgue until the conflict ends.

The morgue has had to order more than 100 coffins with special handles to make it easier to remove them from the ground to be reburied later.

"What? He wants a hundred?" a local carpenter said, half shocked, half perplexed. "Where the hell am I going to get enough wood to build that many coffins?"

At the hospital, members of the medical staff now find themselves dealing with the dead more than saving the living.

"This hospital is working like a morgue more than a hospital," said Hala Hijazi, a volunteer whose mother is an anesthesiologist at the hospital. Lately, Hijazi said, she has begun to recognize some of the faces arriving here as the scope of the Israeli bombings has widened. "A lot of the people are from Tyre, and we know some of them," she said of the cadavers.

A pall fell over Tyre on Thursday, as UN peacekeepers loaded more than 600 UN employees, foreigners and Lebanese onto a ferry bound for Cyprus, then promptly packed up their makeshift evacuation center at the Rest House and left for their base in the town of Naqura.

Hundreds descended on the hotel on Wednesday, desperate to board the ferry. Despite fears that many would be left behind, almost all who sought refuge were able to board the ship Thursday.

But as the last UN peacekeepers left town later in the day, those who remained were braced for an even heavier bombardment. There were rumors of an Israeli invasion, and fears of even more casualties.

For Ali and Ahmad al-Ghanam, brothers who have taken shelter in a home just a few blocks from the morgue, the refrigerated truck full of cadavers is a vivid reminder of the attack that killed 23 members of their family.

When Israeli loudspeakers warned residents to evacuate the village of Marwaheen on Saturday, the families packed their belongings and headed for safety. Twenty-four people piled into a pickup truck and drove toward Tyre, with the brothers trailing behind them.

Another group set off for a nearby UN observation post, but were promptly turned away.

As the pickup raced to Tyre, Ali al- Ghanam said, Israeli boats shelled their convoy, hitting the pickup but wounding only the women and children in the back.

Within minutes, however, an Israeli helicopter approached, firing a missile that blew the pickup to pieces as the passengers struggled to jump out, he said. His brother Mohammad, his wife and their six children were killed instantly along with several of their relatives. The only survivor was the brothers' 4-year-old niece, who suffered severe burns to much of her body.

"The dead stayed in the sun for hours until anyone could come and collect them," Ghanam said. "The Israelis can't understand that we are people, too. Should they wonder why so many of us support the resistance?" he said, speaking of Hezbollah.

The 23 bodies are still waiting to be buried. Ghanam said that it would be impossible for them to be buried in their village while the bombing continued.

Holding a funeral is impossible, but even digging a grave could attract fire, he said, assuming the remaining family members were able to return to the village.

The brothers walked to the hospital Thursday to sign documents allowing the hospital to bury the bodies in a mass grave.

Copyright © 2006 the International Herald Tribune