The author, surgeon Dr. Pauline Cutting, meets Dr. Swee Chai Ang in the summer of 1985 in London. Swee had been working at the Gaza Hospital in the Sabra camp, West Beirut, during the 1982 Sabra-Chatila massacre. Pauline decides to volunteer for humanitarian reasons (62); she arrives in Beirut on 6, Dec. 1985; Sol-Britt, the Norwegian Aid Committee (NORWAC) co-ordinator ([Ch.1] 3) meets and introduces her to the staff of the hospitals in the West Beirut camps: Haifa Hospital (Bourj al-Barajneh camp), Akka Hospital (Um Walid, the Libanon director of the Palestine Red Crescent Society PRCS) and Chatila Hospital (Dr. Chris Giannou) and Drs. Lieve and Dirk organising a PRCS (i.e. free) out-patient Clinic (11). The Gaza Hospital in Sabra had been looted and burned down in 1985.
Pauline starts work at Haifa Hospital. She learns from Ben Alofs and Palestinians about the complex history of the Libanese civil war, the Palestinian diaspora and the 1947 British betrayal (31-40).
Pauline gives an almost daily record of her experience: the people she is working with, she meets, friendships that grow, the fighting and shelling, cease-fires that may or may not hold, casualties she saves or looses, not being able for month to leave Haifa Hospital, a narrow escape of being kidnapped (97ff), … After 3 months a short stay home in England, then she returns (50).
15 April 1986: US bombing of Ghadafy’s residence in Libya triggers immediate repercussions in Libanon; since then the foreign staff - like male Palestinians - are confined to the camp, supported by Palestine staff and friends (56).
End of May 1986: bombing and shelling of the camp surrounded by tanks, gunfire, casualties, access tightly controlled, dangerous, often lethal.
Susan Wighton arrived in September. For once it was peaceful and as Lieve and Dirk came to the end of their year’s work, Ben and her went with them on a 4 day trip into the Chouf Mountains and Bekaa valley; the incredible hospitality of the people (103-107).
Signs of growing trouble by October; 29 October fighting breaks out again (Ch.10).
Ben Alofs recounts the Sabra-Chatila massacre; “the horrible irony: Israeli soldiers were colluding with a militia modelled on Hitler’s Nazis”. (162f)
By January the camp was starving. Desperate pleads for help send out 23 Jan. 1987 and again a few weeks later (164f, 171f)
April 1987: Syrian intervention ends the almost a year long siege (Ch.16).
Finally, Swee Chai Ang arranges the departure of the exhausted British Team: Pauline and Ben, Susan, Hannes.

Some persons Pauline mentions:
Sol-Britt, Norwegian Aid Committee (NORWAC) co-ordinator (Ch.1, 52, 68, 110f)
Um Walid, director of the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) in Lebanon (8f, 41, 60, …)
Dr. Chris Giannou, Greek-Canadian surgeon, Director of Chatila hospital (9f, 97, photo)
Dr. Lieve Seuntjens, Belgian, married to Dirk (11, 75, 83, photo)
Dr. Dirk van Duppen, Belgian, (11, 56, 75, 83, photo)
Dr. Maher, (12ff, 73f, 79, 97)
Ben Alofs, Dutch nurse (30ff, 92f, 125, …, photo)
Barbara, English nurse, at Bourj al-Barajneh for 4 months (8,48f,
Susan Wighton, Scottish Nurse (51, 102, 112, 125, …, photo)
Dr. Rede (Reda), medical director, Haifa Hospital, his wife Erika (55, 63, 79, 85, 125, photo)
Dr. Mounier (63, 125, 139, 155f, photo)
Nidal, chief administrator, killed April 1986 (42, 59)
Dr. Samer, Spanish (46, 87, 90, 109, 112, 136, …)
Hassan, theatre nurse (50, 58f, 65ff, 93, 113ff photo)
Dr. Diek, (90f
Dr. Nader, Palestinian GP (111, 113, 170)
Hannes, physiotherapist (103, 111f, 125, 132, 136, 141, 146, 170, 196)
Maureen, Scottish physiotherapist (110,
Nooha, nurse (132, 136, 146, 171)
Nabila Brier, UNICEF field officer, Beirut, murdered 18.Dec. 1986 (141, 163)
Dr. Swee Chai Ang, co-founder 1984 of ‘Medical Aid for Palestinians’ (MAP) after working at Gaza Hospital during the Sabra and Shatila massacre 1982

I suggest to read first Parts I-IV of Dr. Swee Chai Ang: From Beirut to Jerusalem - A woman surgeon with the Palestinians (available online : https://jfp.freedomflotilla.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/From-Beirut-to-Jerusa... ) as it gives the background to this book. (X-23) ( )

A fascinating look at children under siege