Palestinian refugees return to camp devastated by militants in Lebanon

NAHR EL-BARED REFUGEE CAMP, Lebanon - They came in buses, cars, and on foot, clutching plastic bags and boxes of food.

About 100 Palestinian families become the first of 30,000 displaced people to return to this refugee camp, destroyed in three months of fighting with Islamic militants inspired by Al Qaeda. More are expected to arrive in the coming weeks even before reconstruction begins.

Buses and pickups with mattresses and pillows piled on top and packed with canned food, bottled water, bread, and dates queued at an army checkpoint on a dusty street at the camp's eastern entrance in front of shelled and burned buildings.

Most of the families were returning for the first time to the camp since the army crushed Fatah Islam militants on Sept. 2 after more than three months of heavy fighting. Many did not know whether their homes and shops were still standing.

The government has said it would cost $382.5 million to rebuild the camp, and the United Nations has appealed for $55 million in emergency funding.

Lebanon has about 400,000 Palestinians - mostly refugees who fled after Israel was created in 1948 and their descendants. They live in 12 impoverished camps, including Nahr el-Bared, banned from all but menial jobs and mostly living off UN aid.

The issue is so sensitive that the refugees, and the government, are eager for a quick return to Nahr el-Bared even though large parts are unfit for habitation. The refugees fear being permanently resettled elsewhere in Lebanon as a prelude for a larger Palestinian resettlement, and the government has taken pains to allay their concerns by promising a quick return to Nahr el-Bared.

"I cannot describe my happiness with the return to my home in the camp," said Samira Youssef al-Bani, a veiled 44-year-old mother of 10, seated in a waiting bus. "I am ready to live with my family even in one destroyed room in Nahr el-Bared."

Large parts of the camp, on the outskirts of the northern port city of Tripoli, were destroyed by tank and artillery bombardment and door-to-door fighting. More than 200 militants, 168 soldiers, and about 40 civilians were killed in the worst internal fighting Lebanon has witnessed since the 1975-90 civil war.

The 100 families, who fled to the nearby Beddawi camp, are the first group of about 800 families the Lebanese Army is allowing to return to one section of the camp. About 100 families will return per day, Lebanese military and Palestinian officials said.

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East handed out leaflets to the returning families warning them against touching unexploded shells. Troops banned journalists and photographers from joining the families.