Palestinians Under Pressure To Leave Iraq

"She needs an operation. I think one more month is all that we can wait," he said.

Like many Palestinians here, Ahmed's parents took refuge in Iraq after the creation of Israel in 1948. Hussein later adopted the Palestinian cause, using the issue to further his image as an advocate for Arab nationalism. Hussein provided free or subsidized housing to Palestinian families, paid cash to those whose relatives had died in the conflict with Israel, and exempted them from obligatory military service imposed on Iraqis.

After the 2003 invasion, landlords drove thousands of Palestinians from their lodgings. As many as 1,500 Palestinians at a time took refuge in a squatter settlement organized by the United Nations and the Palestinian Red Crescent Society on the playground of the Haifa Sports Club in Baghdad.

Thaamer Asad Melham, a 41-year-old television actor, lived in the Haifa refugee camp for a year with his wife, two daughters and a son after his landlord expelled them from their home in July 2004. The U.N. refugee agency provided him with an apartment in Baghdad, but the escalating reprisal killings caused him to retreat to the Baladiyat compound last September.

During a mortar explosion on Oct. 19, a nail lodged in the skull of his older brother, Amar, leaving him brain damaged, he said. Melham now washes his brother and changes his diapers, and he has sold off a refrigerator and bedroom furniture to help pay for medicine. Unable to find work, he stays at home with his children, who have stopped going to school.

"I am Palestinian. I am Sunni. And I am an artist," he said. "I can't stay in Iraq."

Tuesday's raid, at an apartment building rented by the United Nations to house 26 Palestinian families, appears to be the work of some component of the Iraqi police, said Ivana Vuco, a human rights officer with the U.N. mission in Baghdad.

The 17 men were held for about nine hours, accused of being terrorists and Hussein sympathizers. Another 13 Palestinians were detained the same day near the Baladiyat compound, Vuco said. Many of the families have expressed their intention to leave Baghdad.

"I don't think anything like this, to the same extent, has happened before," Vuco said of Tuesday's detentions.

When Luay Mohammed, an unemployed tailor, was being held Tuesday, someone struck him in the shoulder with the butt of an AK-47 assault rifle, he said. After he was dropped off near his apartment, he gathered his clothes and his mattress and set off with his family for the Baladiyat compound, to load up a bus and leave Iraq.

"We are really feeling terrified about what's going to happen," he said. "The only thing we want to do right now is survive."

Special correspondent Salih Dehema contributed to this report.