Amal Hussein

Above: Amal with her son. Photograph by Philip Reynaers.

On Wednesday, Israeli aeroplanes started flying over the area and the shooting and shelling began. My brothers and sisters were scared. Those who were scared went down into the shelter next to our house. Thus, one group slept in the shelter and the other group slept in the house. The aeroplanes continued hovering, and there were more and more of them. My three-month-old nephew, who was with my sister in the shelter, started crying. He wanted to eat. She came out with him and four others, and they all came into the house. As soon as she came in – this was on Thursday – we heard shouting, it was coming from the children and women in the shelter, which we could see from our bathroom window. All of a sudden, the armed Phalangists invaded the area. No one could leave the house. All we could hear was the screaming of babies and women. They started killing people. We stayed in the house; we opened the doors and then went into the bathroom with my little nephew. We had gagged his mouth for fear that they would hear his voice and come to kill us. We stayed in the bathroom; they came in and searched the house, but they didn’t find us. We heard the screams and the massacre through the bathroom window. That’s how we knew that they had gone into the shelter and taken everyone they found there, including my relatives. On the Saturday, we escaped into the inside of the camp. After that, my mother went back to see my brothers and sisters, but she couldn’t recognise them because they were so disfigured. All we knew was that they had been buried in the mass grave. My father taught the child who survived (my father’s nephew) to call him Daddy.

Mrs Amal Hussein lost a brother, two sisters and several other relatives.

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]