A humanitarian truce was declared on Monday evening between the various armed Palestinian factions in the Aïn el-Hilweh camp, as the death toll continued to rise on the third day of clashes between Fatah, the main Palestinian organization led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and Islamist groupings in the camp, notably Esbat el-Ansar.
According to Dorothee Klaus, director of Unrwa in Lebanon, the death toll in the largest Palestinian refugee camp has risen to eleven and 40 injured since Saturday, whereas medical sources had earlier reported eight dead in three days of clashes.
Earlier in the day, an attempt was made to establish a ceasefire. Oussama Saad, MP for Saïda, announced at the end of a meeting he had held with the various Palestinian factions that they had “committed to maintaining the ceasefire” and that a second follow-up meeting would be held on Tuesday morning. Needless to say, none of them have complied with this commitment. Clashes with automatic weapons and anti-tank rockets continued to rage.
Even after the humanitarian truce was announced in the evening, the exchange of fire continued, but intermittently.
Damage is extensive in the camp, which had been evacuated by its inhabitants. Ms. Klaus told AFP that 2,000 people, including children, had been forced to flee the camp since Saturday. She added that “two Unrwa schools have been damaged”, pointing out that the agency had had to temporarily suspend its services in the camp due to the violence. “We urge all armed actors to respect all Unrwa buildings (…) in accordance with international law”, continued Ms. Klaus.
Under a long-standing agreement, the Lebanese army does not deploy in Palestinian camps in Lebanon, where security is provided by Palestinian factions. The clashes broke out on Saturday following the death of a member of an Islamist group. Subsequently, five Fatah members, including a military official, were killed in an ambush.
