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The Palestinian civilians of the Naher al-Bared refugee camp, in North Lebanon, are under heavy bombardment. Fires are raging, smoke is billowing, and people are dying. Palestinian blood is drip dripping in Lebanon again; and life is leaving this world.

There are thousands of people including children and women still in the camp, who, according to the Lebanese army, have lost their opportunity to leave and are now trapped. What justification can an army have for attacking a refugee camp, a densely populated civilian area? The answer must surely be none.

The Palestinian people in Palestine continue to survive the now 40 years old and seemingly unending brutal Israeli occupation of their land, the instrument and root of an unending cycle of violence and race hate against them.

Of the countries housing the Palestinian diaspora in refugee camps outside Palestine, Lebanon has been the most unpleasant host. Its refugee camps are the most dilapidated, and the people who must live in them are the most marginalised among the Palestinian diaspora.

The wholly inadequate excuse for the current violence is an alleged bank robbery. Where a crime has been committed there are criminal justice processes to follow to apprehend the suspect or suspects. This latest of collective punishments perpetrated against Palestinian civilians is a crime perpetrated by the state and supported by Washington, who, in the wake of renewed violence immediately sent ammunitions to Lebanon. Why?