NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon, 23 August 2007 — A Palestinian religious figure acting as mediator to enable families of Islamist militants to leave a besieged camp in northern Lebanon said yesterday that phone contact with the Fatah Al-Islam extremists had been lost.
Another religious figure, Sheikh Ayad Abu Ardat, told a press conference at the camp, that the Ulema, or Palestinian religious figures, had not made contact with Fatah Al-Islam since midday Tuesday. They were waiting for the group’s spokesman to call them again to discuss details about the evacuation of some 70 women and children.
“We are now waiting for Abu Salim Taha to contact us so that we can organize the evacuation in coordination with the army,” Ardat said. Mohammed Hajj, spokesman for the Ulema, told AFP: “We are awaiting a response about the number of people to be evacuated and the time, in order to secure a corridor.”
An AFP correspondent saw Lebanese Army helicopters, meanwhile, launch repeated raids on positions of the Al-Qaeda-inspired group beginning at dawn yesterday. Intermittent artillery and tank fire also continued to target the small area still controlled by the militants.
The religious figures met with members of the army command yesterday to agree on a number of issues in the event an evacuation of civilians did take place. A source familiar with the outcome of the meeting told AFP that the army had agreed to have women officers search the evacuees and to allow them to be housed in two other Palestinian refugee camps. The army also agreed to allow the Red Cross and humanitarian organizations to coordinate the evacuation.
Negotiations to evacuate the civilians began Tuesday after Taha contacted the religious figures seeking a way out from the battered camp for the women and children. The army said it had agreed and was ready for a truce that would allow the families safe passage. “We gave our agreement on Tuesday but have heard nothing since,” an army spokesman said.
He also said the army had detained a Fatah Al-Islam fighter three kilometers north of Nahr Al-Bared yesterday. The man, a Palestinian, was captured by an army patrol on the coast after he had fled the camp by sea, the spokesman said.
According to a source close to the negotiations, the religious figures have drawn up a list of 50 women and 20 children, including the wife of Fatah Al-Islam chief Shaker Al-Abbasi and the widow of his No. 2, Abu Hureira, who was killed at the beginning of August.
Previous mediation attempts over the past three months by the Palestinian clerics aimed at securing the militants’ surrender or the safe conduct of their families have failed. On July 11, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) tried in vain to evacuate 45 women and 20 children, all related to Islamist fighters inside Nahr Al-Bared.
