Saturday, July 31, 1982

Military Action:

IDF warships pound PLO positions and residential areas in Manara, Ramlet el-Baida areas of West Beirut as cease-fire collapses (artillery duel between PLO units in southern suburbs and IDF units in hills); PLO prepares for worst, bolsters defenses.

Casualties:

IDF turns on water but continues to blockade other goods from West Beirut; gas selling for $30 per 20 liters; ICRC files official complaint with Israel over phosphorus shell which landed on roof of ICRC offices and continuing IDF artillery attacks on hospitals (PLO-run Gaza Hospital hit twice yesterday; Beirut police report 38 Palestinian and Lebanese civilians killed, 56 wounded); one IDF soldier killed, one wounded in eastern region.

Political Responses:

Palestinians/ Lebanese: Butros expects final negotiations on PLO withdrawal to begin within 24 hours; Butros, Wazzan, Sarkis and Habib meet; Salam claims Israel does not want PLO out of Beirut but desires to destroy it as military and political force; Arafat cables leaders of France, USSR, Cuba, Saudi Arabia and the UN, "stressing gravity of the situation"; Wazzan proposes to Habib that fuel, water, food be brought in from donor countries by ships escorted by the Sixth Fleet; Wazzan's wife heads sit-in at American University of Beirut by 20 women to protest continuing blockade.

US and Other Countries: "Grim-faced" Reagan says "bloodshed must be stopped" in Lebanon.