Donors pledge US$122 million to rebuild Lebanon Palestinian refugee camp

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Delegates at an international donors' conference have pledged about US$120 million to rebuild a war-ravaged Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon, officials said Monday. Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik said the result of the one-day conference in Vienna conveyed a message of encouragement to both the Palestinian refugees and the Lebanese people. The Nahr el-Bared camp, on the outskirts of the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, was devastated last year by three months of heavy fighting between the Lebanese army and al-Qaida-inspired militants of the Fatah Islam group holed up inside. Some 5,449 displaced Palestinian families have been waiting a year for the camp to be reconstructed, according to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East.