Lebanon's displaced defiant in adversity

KAIFOUN, Lebanon, July 31: Al-Waad al-Sadek is 10 days old. He was born high in the hills above Beirut, in a block of apartments housing nearly 900 people who have fled Israel's bombing of the Lebanese capital.

His name means True Promise: the name of the operation in which Hizbollah guerrillas kidnapped two Israeli soldiers on July 12, sparking an Israeli onslaught.

''Even if we die we are with Hizbollah,'' said his mother, cradling the tiny baby in her arms.

Many of the families in the apartment block are from south Beirut, a Hizbollah stronghold which has been flattened by days of Israeli airstrikes. But the mood is defiant and support for the Lebanese guerrillas undimmed.

''We want the resistance to live and to hold its strength,'' said Abeer Hejazi, wearing a bright orange headscarf.

''We don't want Israel to come in and take a single piece of our land and we're telling (Hizbollah leader Sayyed) Hassan Nasrallah you are the jewel in our crown,'' she said.

In front of the packed apartment block where people are sleeping five and six to a room, independent aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres is distributing cooking and hygiene kits.

MSF's Annick Hamel estimates 100,000 people have run to the hills to escape the bombing and many towns have crammed them in.

Resources are stretched and Kaifoun is a priority.

''So far, everything has been based on Lebanese solidarity, but that won't last forever,'' she said, adding that MSF planned to set up a mobile clinic in the town to help the displaced.

Talal Jawhar, head of Kaifoun's council, says the town has swollen from 6,000 people to 42,000 in the past two weeks, with displaced from Beirut, the south and the Bekaa valley.

He said everyone had a place to sleep -- in the school, in the hospital, in houses -- but water was scarce, medicines were in short supply and the council had run out of money.

NO WATER The United Nations estimates up to 800,000 Lebanese have been displaced since the bombing started and the hills southeast of Beirut are a welcome sanctuary for those traumatised, or made homeless, by the attacks.

In the apartment block lobby, makeshift curtains are drapped around families, some sleeping on mats. An old man brews coffee.

There is enough to eat, but very little running water.

The bath in one flat is half full of stinking brown water -- the water 15 people use to wash themselves. In the living room women and children perch on sofas, watching Hizbollah's television channel.

''Victory is for us, for Nasrallah and Hizbollah,'' shouts Dala Fadel, 56, making a victory sign with her fingers.

Outside groups of youths, sheltering in the shade as the MSF aid boxes are unloaded from trucks, have a similar message.

''I don't mind if I sleep outside on stones, as long as Hizbollah wins,'' said Imad Issa, 21.

Standing next to him, Hussein Mansour, 20, says he works for a firm distributing satellite dishes, but had to move to Kaifoun when his home in south Beirut was destroyed by a bomb.

''First we had to fight hard to get these rooms. Now we have everything except water -- and hashish,'' he said. Then he tapped his back pocket and said with a smile: ''Now we have hashish.''

REUTERS