DAMASCUS, Syria, March 7 (UPI) -- Outraged Palestinian refugees took to the streets Thursday in Syria and Lebanon to protest intensified Israeli attacks and the killing of the Palestinians in the occupied territories.
Some 10,000 Palestinian refugees, including children and students, gathered in the Yarmouk camp near Damascus to show support for the intifada and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
The protestors shouted slogans pledging support to Arafat and urging Syrian President Bashar Assad to "bombard Tel Aviv." While some burned Israeli and U.S. flags, others waved Palestinian flags and pictures of Palestinians killed by Israeli bombardment in the West Bank and Gaza.
Fatima Saeed, a 50-year-old woman from the Yarmouk camp, defied Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's actions by saying, "Whatever he would do, we will keep on giving birth to children by twins and send them for martyrdom in Palestine until its liberation. We will show him (Sharon) what a Palestinian means."
Khadija Shihabi appealed to Arafat to remain "steadfast as we will stand by you until the last drop of our blood."
Two Syrian police cars blocked the entrance of the Yarmouk shantytown, the largest refugee camp in Syria, to prevent protestors from fanning out.
Two years ago, Palestinian protestors went out of the camp and marched to the U.S. embassy where they threw stones at the compound.
Mousa Abu Marzouk, politburo member of the militant Hamas movement, called on the Palestinian Authority for a "better performance" by ending peace negotiations and security coordination with Israel, including cease-fire requests.
Talal Naji, assistant secretary-general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, commented on the peace offer of Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah, saying it was "less than the minimum required to guarantee the rights of the Palestinian people."
Last month, Abdullah proposed Arabs normalize ties with Israel in exchange for its complete pullout from Arab territories occupied during the 1967 war.
In south Lebanon, thousands of Palestinian women and children staged separate sit-ins in the refugee camps of Ein el Helweh near the city of Sidon and Burj al Shimali at the outskirts of the city of Tyre.
The women waved Palestinian flags and pictures of Wafa Idriss, the first Palestinian woman to carry out a suicide attack against the Israelis.
Amina Jibril, president of the General Federation of the Palestinian Woman, called for pressure on Israel to stop attacks against the Palestinian people and called for international forces to protect residents of the occupied territories.
Some 150 Palestinian children also protested in Ein el Helwh, shouting: "The children of Palestine are being slaughtered. Arabs, where are you?"
(Abdel Mawla Khaled in Sidon, south Lebanon, contributed to this report)
