Symbolic restart for shattered Lebanon refugee camp
The symbolic rebuilding of a Palestinian refugee camp devastated by deadly battles between Islamists and the army in northern Lebanon 18 months ago began on Monday.
Thousands of Palestinian refugees fled Nahr al-Bared in the summer of 2007 from heavy clashes between the army and the Islamist militant group Fatah al-Islam that killed some 400 people.
Government representatives and Palestinian diplomats attended a foundation stone-laying ceremony hailed by UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) chief Karen AbuZayd as "a new beginning for the refugees whose homes and livelihoods were destroyed."
Once home to 31,000 UN-registered Palestinian refugees, Nahr al-Bared was built in 1949 and is one of 12 camps in Lebanon.
UNRWA appealed for 450 million dollars for the rebuilding effort, which was scheduled to be completed in around three years, but so far only 120 million dollars has been received.
AbuZayd said on Monday that because of the funding shortfall the project would permit the return of only a quarter of the 27,000 former residents now living outside the camp.
A "disappointing donor response" to the agency”s Nahr al-Bared appeal "will allow us to construct only the first two of the eight phases envisaged for the project," she said, and urged donors to be "more forthcoming and generous."
"The refugees from Nahr al-Bared will remain in a state of displacement for months to come, living either in rented housing or temporary shelters UNRWA has built with the support of donors," AbuZayd said.
Since the end of the battles 18 months ago, some former residents have returned to the newer part of the camp which suffered less destruction.
They live in renovated buildings, garages, warehouses or homes provided by UNRWA. The remainder are in the nearby Beddawi camp or other camps.
The three-month conflict in the summer of 2007 devastated large swathes of Nahr al-Bared and led to the deaths of more then 400 people, among them 168 Lebanese soldiers.