Since the outbreak of the latest round of fighting in Beirut, Israel has permitted some 12,000 refugees from Beirut and the surrounding area to enter the border security zone in southern Lebanon.
Most of the refugees are Shiites, many of them elderly men, women and children. They have mainly gone to live with relatives in towns and villages in the southern part of the country.
The only limitation on their entry is that they may not bring vehicles into the security zone.
Thousands of other Shiite refugees are gathering in Tyre and Sidon, cities on the coast of southern Lebanon, but north of the security zone.
For Christian refugees from West Beirut, there is no overland passage to southern Lebanon and the only possibility for them to leave is by sea. For this reason many of the refugees of the past month have preferred to sail to Cyprus and then on to other locales.
Ha’aretz reported that during the first two days of last week, Lebanese merchants had doubled their purchases of foodstuffs in northern Galilee in order to convey them to southern Lebanon, where there is a severe shortage of these products.
They transfer their produce, especially bread, to areas outside the security zone as well.
The paper said that 70,000 refugees have arrived in the area in Lebanon controlled by United Nations peacekeeping forces, and 12,000 have come to the security zone.
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