https://arab.news/6hh75
- Machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades were used in a series of exchanges that left one Fatah member dead and seven other men wounded
BEIRUT: An uneasy calm returned to Ain Al-Hilweh, Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp, on Thursday after a night of violent clashes between gunmen from the Fatah movement and rivals from the extremist Asbat Al-Ansar group.
Machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades were used in a series of exchanges that left one Fatah member dead and seven other men wounded.
The sound of gunfire could be heard in the nearby coastal city of Sidon, adjacent to the camp.
Ghassan Ayoub, a Palestinian security official in Ain Al-Hilweh, told Arab News: “What began as an isolated fight suddenly developed into clashes that the Palestinian forces inside the camp are working to contain.”
He said the victim has yet to be buried because of simmering tensions in the camp.
Security officials say the clashes erupted on Wednesday night after a dispute between Fatah members in one of the neighborhoods resulted in injuries.
While transporting the injured to a hospital inside the camp, armed Fatah members passed in front of Al-Shuhada Mosque at the entrance to Al-Safsaf, a neighborhood controlled by the Asbat Al-Ansar group.
A guard at the mosque fired on the passers-by, wounding a Fatah member. The group returned fire and clashes escalated throughout the night.
The wounded man, Mahmoud Zubaidat, died early on Thursday. His brother fired shots in the air when his death was announced, prompting Palestinian forces to take action to restore calm.
UNRWA schools inside the camp closed on Thursday to protect students. The clashes also caused damage to cars and property.
Nidaa Al-Insan Hospital inside the camp said in a statement that it had treated seven wounded people with serious to moderate injuries, including one who needed surgery.
Independent MP Abdul Rahman Al-Bizri said the armed clashes “threaten the safety and security of residents and citizens, and harm the Palestinian cause.”
He said that “serious work should be done to prevent these clashes from happening again, as they harm civil peace and stability in the region, especially since Lebanon needs peace and calm to overcome the critical and exceptional circumstances it is going through now.”
Al-Birzi called on the rival groups to “assume their responsibilities.”
Meetings are being held to contain the situation, and “an investigation committee will be formed to establish responsibilities and undertake the measures necessary to defuse the situation,” he added.
Ayoub denied any link between the violence and a report by the US website “The Media Line” claiming that mercenaries from Palestinian camps in Lebanon were being recruited to join Russian forces in Ukraine.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry denied the allegations, describing them as “baseless news.”
The ministry added: “The Palestinian people have their own cause and battles to fight, and are not party to any other war or conflict elsewhere in the world.”
A Lebanese source told the US website that “in cooperation with Hezbollah, employees at the Palestinian Embassy in Lebanon are communicating with activists in the Fatah political movement so they can be recruited in exchange for hundreds of dollars.”
The source added that “Palestinians residing in Lebanon have signed up to join the conflict in Ukraine on behalf of Russia, having been offered a sum of $350 by Russian entities.”
The US website claimed that “the majority of the Palestinians being deployed to the front lines in Ukraine hail from Ain Al-Helweh,” adding that “the recruits are members of the Fatah political movement, as well as other organizations such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.”
A 2017 report by the Lebanese Central Administration of Statistics and the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics said that more than 174,000 Palestinians were living in the camps.
According to UNRWA, 20,000 Palestinians fled to Lebanon from Syria after the outbreak of war.