Beirut Palestinians Seize Buildings, Fire on Shias

Palestinian guerrillas broke out of a besieged Beirut refugee camp Tuesday, seized four high-rise buildings and poured heavy fire onto the Shia Muslim militiamen who surrounded them, witnesses reported.

Several hours after the Palestinian surge, a Shia leader arranged a cease-fire that halted, at least temporarily, more than 48 hours of fierce fighting around three refugee camps in Beirut. At least 121 people were killed and nearly 650 wounded in the battles, police said.

The cease-fire, mediated by Sheik Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, a pro-Palestinian fundamentalist Shia leader, appeared to be holding at midnight. Red Cross ambulances were allowed into the camps to evacuate casualties, some of whom had lain bleeding and unaided since the shooting started late Sunday.

The thrust by the Palestinians into Beirut’s Fakhani district gave them command of a string of strongpoints dominating the battle zone.

Squads of Palestinian fighters, joined by grenade-throwing women and children, drove fighters of the Shias’ Amal militia out of three 10-story hilltop buildings outside the Sabra camp in mostly Muslim West Beirut, Palestinian guerrillas and witnesses said.

They said other guerrillas recaptured the nine-story Gaza Hospital, on the fringe of Sabra, which was overrun by the Shia militiamen Monday night.

At the Chatilla and Borj el Brajne camps, Palestinians fought desperately to keep the Shias at bay.

“Everybody’s fighting in there. Men, women, boys, even girls are throwing hand grenades,” said an Amal commander who identified himself by his fighting name, Abu Mira.

He stood in the bullet-riddled Aamelieh school on the fringe of Borj el Brajne in south Beirut, which was surrounded by his men.

Scores of Palestinians slipped out of the camps during lulls in the fighting Tuesday, seeking safety from the barrages even though Shias control the surrounding areas. Men and women clutching children ran for cover.

“We’ve been living in basements for two days,” said a wild-eyed woman dragging a terrified boy. “But at least we’re alive.”

Shia fighters searched house-to-house near the camps, dragging out at least 65 young men suspected of being Palestinian guerrillas.

Palestinian sources said many wounded people in the camps bled to death in their flimsy, shell-blasted homes Monday because medical teams could not reach them.

Weeks of Tension

The fighting was preceded by three weeks of tension between the Shias and the Palestinians, most of whom are Sunni Muslims.

Amal, Lebanon’s largest Shia militia, is trying to stop Palestinian guerrillas from rebuilding the power base they lost when the Israelis drove them out of Lebanon.

The militia vows to fight the Israelis until they leave Lebanon but wants to keep the Palestinians from resuming attacks on Israel that would bring retribution on Shia-populated south Lebanon.

Syria blamed Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, for starting the fighting.

Syria, which backs radical PLO factions that seek Arafat’s ouster, appeared upset that the assault by the Syrian-backed Amal has united rival Palestinian factions behind Arafat.

In Amman, Jordan, Arafat renewed appeals to Arab leaders and Communist countries to help end the fighting.

Promises of Help

A spokesman for Arafat said he got a promise of help from King Fahd of Saudi Arabia and also met with ambassadors of the Soviet Union, its East European allies, China and Yugoslavia.

Before the Palestinian fighters broke out of Sabra, Amal and Shia soldiers of the Lebanese army’s 6th Brigade had pushed the Palestinians into isolated strongpoints there.

The Palestinians in the nearby Chatilla camp and at the main base inside Borj el Brajne held out despite being cut off from reinforcements.

Christian militias massacred hundreds of Palestinians in Sabra and Chatilla in September, 1982, three months after Israel invaded Lebanon to crush Palestinian guerrillas.

In recent months, hundreds of Palestinian fighters have slipped back into Lebanon through the northern port of Tripoli, Palestinian sources say, moving in small groups through the Syrian-controlled Bekaa Valley and into Beirut.

Reports reaching Beirut on Tuesday said Israeli soldiers have dismantled eight front-line positions in eastern Lebanon and pulled back 2 1/2 miles. Israel has said it will complete its withdrawal from Lebanon by early June.