One Palestinian nurse, who thought he would be safe with us, was identified. He was led away at gunpoint, out of sight. A moment later we heard the shots.

We were ordered to start walking again, surrounded by a growing group of militiamen. One of them, sitting on a jeep along the road, called out: "Shou, Baader Meinhof?"

As we reached the southern part of Shatila we saw more and more militiamen. To the left of us a big army bulldozer with Hebrew markings. Ellen Siegel, my Jewish American colleague, saw them as well.

We reached the exit of Shatila and now entered the road with Akka-hospital on our left and the Kuwaiti Embassy at the top of the road on our right. Again we were stopped. The "officer" came forward and asked us, if we were communists. We said no. "Are you Christians?" "Yes", we answered. He became angry. "You, Christians?! You are dirty people! Christians do not help Palestinians! You are terrorists, communists!"

Philip, a British nurse, was grabbed by a menacing looking character with a black beard and a black beret when he protested we were for humanitarian reasons. There was shouting and pushing and again we were ordered to start walking. The road sloped upwards in the direction of the Kuwaiti Embassy.