Just got off the phone with Olfat--Nuclear/Chemical Weapons?

Olfat runs the Women's Humanitarian Organizaiton in a Palestinian Refugee Camp in Bourj al Bourajne in the Dahiye, southern suburbs of Beirut. I was going to volunteer with her for these next six months. (But I backed out when I saw what Israel was doing in Gaza.) To donate to her organization, go to Donations at HowToHelpLebanon.net.

Her camp is located at Harat al Hreik, which is all completely destroyed. She says when she drives there, hers is the only car in the streets. She didn't sleep all night; they were bombing the whole time.

Somehow the camp has not been destroyed. Everything around it has. So they have 150 refugee families, which is amazing when you know how absolutely crowded the place was before.

There is a petrol crisis. She had to go to three places yesterday before she found a place to fill her car, and then she had to wait for a long time. She says it's like they are 50 years back. No petrol, no water. All the destruction. It seems so hopeless.

There was an 8-year old boy who came from the South two days. Three of his friends died while they were playing outside. He got hit with some shrapnel. He said his mouth hurt him, and he couldn't stand to eat. When they finally saw the doctor (of course, the hospitals are too crowded), they observed that the tissue was decaying.

Olfat talks to a doctor regularly in Saida, and he's saying that these are chemical and uranium weapons. It's like you can't see the wounds from the outside, but in the inside you see the tissue decaying. Of course, these kinds of weapons are illegal.

She says the stress on the kids is overwhelming. You have 9 and 10 year olds wetting their bed.

I know it's encouraging when I call her, and just telling her that I'm writing this up. For people stuck there, they feel like the world has forgotten them. I try to encourage her and tell her that we're speaking and we're getting the word out and we're organizing and protesting. I have to. Even if it doesn't do anything, my friends there have to know that they aren't forgotten, and that people care.