Bombing Obliterates Last Route Out of Tyre

Smoke rises after missiles hit a Tyre apartment complex that was the scene of an Israeli raid Saturday. (By Ben Curtis -- Associated Press)

The destruction of the makeshift bridge over the Litani threw relief and medical efforts into further chaos and tangled the lives of the thousands of residents still here who call this war their most trying -- more unsettling than the 1975-90 civil war, more devastating than the 1982 Israeli invasion, and more destructive than Israeli offensives against Lebanon in 1993 and 1996.

At Jabal Amel Hospital, Mteirak, a native of Sidon, said he had been unable to go home for 28 days. He calls his wife and three children once a day. They send photos by cellphone. "There's no way to leave," he said. He repeated the words.

Mroue recalled a patient, Mariam Jawad, who arrived at the hospital from Bint Jbeil on Sunday. She had been wounded three days earlier. The usual 45-minute drive took 10 hours. Her leg was amputated, too damaged by a tourniquet tied to it to stop the bleeding.

"I'm not thinking about anything else other than to stay living," Mroue said, as blasts echoed in the distance, smoke mingling with puffy clouds. "It's not one of the human rights? We want only this. Not democracy, not liberty, nothing. Just this one."

For three days, the International Committee of the Red Cross said it has been unable to win permission from the Israeli military to venture on roads into southern Lebanon. "And I doubt we'll be up and about tomorrow," Huguenin said.

"Our contention is that there may be military necessities, but that doesn't mean the entire region should be off-limits," he added. "The fact you give prior warning doesn't exonerate you of responsibility under international law."

The United Nations said it was trying to get its forces to repair the Litani bridge, which was bombed Sunday night, but Huguenin said workers were reluctant to drive heavy machinery, fearing that Israeli forces would mistake it for missile launchers. The problem had become so bad that earlier, the Red Cross had run into problems getting cranes to the Tyre port to unload a ship with relief supplies.

On Monday, Doctors Without Borders created a 200-yard-long human chain across the river, passing hand to hand in knee-deep water three tons of medical supplies and gasoline, said Sergio Cecchini, a spokesman for the group.

All that spans the rest of the river, its meandering water tinted green, is a fallen tree, he said.

"This is the only way at the moment to connect Tyre to the rest of Lebanon," Cecchini said.

By nightfall, the Israeli military declared a curfew on any traffic in southern Lebanon, south of the Litani River, "from 10 p.m. on." Rumors of it had already spread by afternoon on television news, whose broadcasts have become the secluded city's favorite pastime.

"It's better to die inside than to die in the road," said Khalil al-Ashkar, 25, whose family owns the Salinas restaurant.