Clashes resumed on Monday morning in Ain al-Hilweh between the Fatah Movement and Islamist groups, despite a call for a ceasefire made a day earlier, mediated by the Amal Movement and representatives of Hezbollah.
Saida MP Oussama Saad, who chaired a meeting with representatives of the warring factions, said that “an agreement was reached to consolidate the ceasefire and restore order” and that a follow-up meeting is to be held on Tuesday.
The meeting was attended by the Palestinian ambassador in Beirut Ashraf Dabbour, the commander of the Palestinian armed struggle in Lebanon Mounir Makdah, and the Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Fathi Abou Al-Ardat.
The volatile calm was broken at dawn by intermittent gunfire, which intensified, heralding a new series of clashes in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp, near Saida, in south Lebanon.
Public institutions and schools in the camp remained closed as clashes, which have killed nine and injured 45 in the past two days, renewed.
Internal Security Forces suspended traffic on roads in the camp’s vicinity, diverting cars to the seaside road and Saida’s corniche.
Ain al-Hilweh residents who have managed to flee reported that “the scale of the destruction was immense” and that life in the camp was “hell,” according to AFP.
The Lebanese army, which, by virtue of a long-standing agreement, does not enter Palestinian camps where security is provided by Palestinian factions, mobilized to reinforce all its positions and checkpoints, and surrounded the camp on all sides.
The Army closed the entrances to the town of Saida and dispatched a drone that flew over the area for hours after it was reported on Twitter that a Lebanese soldier had been wounded by shrapnel from a “mortar shell that fell in one of the military posts.”
The army has warned of the danger to which the soldiers are exposed, and affirmed it will retaliate against any shots fired at the troops.
The incidents at Ain al-Hilweh broke out after a military official from Fatah, the main Palestinian organization, and four of his “comrades” were killed on Saturday.
In a statement made on Sunday afternoon, Fatah confirmed the death of commander Ashraf Al-Armouchi and four of his comrades in a “heinous operation,” denouncing it as an “abominable and cowardly crime,” aimed at undermining the “security and stability” of the camps.
Clashes between rival groups often occur in Ain al-Hilweh, home to 54,000 Palestinian refugees, as well as thousands of other Palestinians who have fled the war in Syria.
