Bahija Zrein

Above: Bahija Zrein's two daughters. Photograph by Philip Reynaers.

We were at home and we got wind of a massacre, but we didn’t believe it. In the night, two young men came to our house and told us that there was a massacre in the camp. We then went outside to see what was happening. We saw the Lebanese Forces standing outside; they called us. There were a lot of people and we thought they were Israelis. When we heard their Lebanese accents I ran away, but they followed me and arrested us young people, both men and women. All this happened at about 5 o’clock in the morning.

They went into the area and took away about 18 young people, while confining us - men, women and children – to the camp. I saw my brothers and some children among the men they took away. While we were walking, we saw people who had been killed with axes. Among them were doctors from Gaza hospital. They lined them up and slaughtered them; then they started shooting at us and killed a large number of people, including 18 of our neighbours’ sons. While they were shooting, the whole camp was surrounded by Israeli tanks and all the diggers were Israeli. An Israeli patrol presented itself to us and asked us to go to the Sports Centre. The men went, while we women were taken to the Kuwaiti embassy.

That’s how we saw them loading the young people into the cars. Among those young people was my brother. They blindfolded them and they loaded my brother in the car. That’s how he disappeared and I have never seen him again since.

Mrs Zrein’s brother was 22 years old at the time of the events.

The above text is an extract from the Complaint lodged in Belgium against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Amos Yaron and other Israelis and Lebanese responsible for the massacre. The full text of the Complaint can be found in the section of this website titled The Case Against The Accused.

[The Sabra & Shatila Massacres]