(5 Nov 2004)
1. Various of Palestinian men walking in street with flags
2. Various of Palestinian women walking in the street
3. Palestinians walking with Palestinian flags and pictures of Arafat
4. Various of women crying and praying
5. Men gathered, holding Palestinian flags and Arafat pictures
STORYLINE:
Palestinians in Rachidiyeh Camp in the Tyre region of Southern Lebanon took to the streets on Friday to pray for the health of Yasser Arafat.
Most of the women were seen crying while men were shouting for the life of Arafat, who also goes by the 'nom de guerre' of Abu Ammar.
There were conflicting reports on Friday about whether Arafat is brain dead or in a "reversible coma."
The contradicting reports about Arafat's condition in a French hospital have further raised concern about possible violent power struggles in the West Bank and Gaza in the event of his death.
Representatives of 13 Palestinian factions, including Fatah and the two Islamic militant groups, met at the parliament building to find ways to try to ensure calm during Arafat's absence.
Arafat and the Palestine Liberation Organisation made their base in Lebanon in the early 1970s after being forced out of Jordan by King Hussein during the Black September massacre.
The PLO and Israel's military engagements across the southern Lebanese border, which culminated in Israel's first northern invasion, "Operation Litani", in 1978 were but one sideshow of the civil war that was devastating Lebanon.
One of the defining moments of Arafat's and the Palestinians' battle against Israel came in 1982 when Israel again invaded Lebanon under the pretext of wiping out Palestinian guerrilla bases near Israel's northern border, but eventually pushed all the way to Beirut and bombarded the capital for weeks.
After Arafat was driven out of his base in Beirut by the invading Israeli forces, he regrouped his PLO fighters in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, only to be chased out again in 1983 by Syrian-backed PLO rebels.
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