Palestinian exodus from Yarmuk camp into Lebanon

Lebanon saw a mass influx of Palestinians on Tuesday, as hundreds fled mounting violence in the Yarmuk refugee camp in Syria and entered through the Masnaa border in the east, an AFP correspondent said. They will join about 2,000 other Palestinians who crossed into Lebanon over the past three days, according to estimates by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and the Lebanese General Security. The correspondent said that dozens of buses and cars carrying Palestinians had arrived on the Lebanese side by midday. The passengers told reporters they were coming from the Yarmuk refugee camp, which suffered unprecedented air strikes on Sunday that left eight civilians dead, according to one watchdog. "There is shelling in several areas of the camp and most people have left," one young man said on condition of anonymity. An official from the newly-formed Syrian-Palestinian displacement committee, responsible for the refugees coming to the Beddawi and Nahr al-Bared camps in northern Lebanon, said that between 60 and 70 families had arrived in the past 48 hours and were placed in homestays with relatives.