Country Lebanon District Tyre | Governorate South Population 11,254 | |
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El-Buss (Arabic: مخيم البص) is a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. It is located north of Tyre.
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History
El-Buss was originally a camp for Armenian refugees, set up in 1935–36 by the French authorities in Mandatory Lebanon. Later, when Palestinian refugees began arriving in independent Lebanon, El-Buss was one of the first sites which was assigned as a Palestinian transit camp. The majority of the first wave of Palestinians who settled in El-Buss were Palestinian Christians from Haifa and Akka.
Soon the camp was overcrowded and more camps were set up in other parts of the country. Initially, Armenians and Palestinians cohabited in the camp. The Armenian inhabitants later left.
Gradually, large parts of the Christian population moved out of the camp. The camp had 3,911 inhabitants in 1968. By 1977, the UNRWA census put the population at 4,643. By 1999, UNRWA estimated the population to be 9,498. Compared with other refugee camps in Lebanon, the El-Buss refugee camp has been characterized by a higher degree of integration between Lebanese and Palestinians. A public hospital set up inside the camp area is still used by Lebanese citizens. Palestinian Christians in the camp attend the same church as Lebanese Christians.
Arab–Israeli conflict
The camp suffered extensive damage in Israeli air and navy attacks in March-April 1978. A contemporary United Nations report said that only half of the houses in the camp were not either badly damaged or destroyed during the 1982 Israeli invasion. The Advisory Committee on Human Rights of the American Friends Service Committee termed the destruction of homes in El-Buss "systematic".