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Those who lived through the first years of the Lebanese war will have experienced these nightmare-like moments, marked by a hellish alternation of precarious ceasefires, periods of relative calm and renewed fighting, often with an increase in violence. The Palestinian camp of Ain el-Hilweh has been plunged into this disastrous cycle for several days. Although Saturday night was marked by relative calm, occasional clashes resumed at dawn on Sunday, at around 4 AM. These clashes, aimed at gaining control of the camp, which represents a strategic position on the road to the South, pit fundamentalist factions (allied with Iran) against Fateh, the main component of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which reports to the Palestinian Authority of the West Bank, chaired by Mahmoud Abbas.
Late Sunday morning, violent clashes, punctuated by mortar shelling, were reported in several sectors of the camp. According to unconfirmed reports, the Fateh launched an offensive against fundamentalist positions in the El-Tawarek and Hettine areas. Witnesses report that the bombardments accompanying the fighting are the heaviest since the clashes began a few days ago. This explains why the “exodus” of camp inhabitants towards Saida has increased over the last twenty-four hours. On Saturday, caretaker Prime Minister Nagib Mikati and caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlaoui forbade the setting up of an encampment at the entrances to Saïda to accommodate the displaced from Ain el-Hilweh, who are instead being housed in mosques and the city’s municipal headquarters. At the same time, some media reported over the weekend that more than one Palestinian camp was bustling and tense.
The day of Saturday
This new deterioration on Sunday morning was already on the horizon during the day and evening of Saturday. Periods of truce and clashes followed one another at a steady pace, scattered with intensive efforts to bring the clashes to a halt, but to no avail. At the very least, we will have to wait a few days to determine whether Palestinian officials will succeed at imposing a lasting halt to the exchange of fire and reciprocal military assaults between pro-Iranian fundamentalist groups and the Fateh.
Saturday began with a tense but calm morning in and around Ain el-Hilweh. Shortly before noon, the crackling of automatic weapons and the explosions of anti-tank and mortar shells began to be heard again in the camp and in the town of Saïda.
According to various news sources, the clashes resumed on Saturday after a brief pause, when militiamen from the fundamentalist groupings “Jund el-Sham” and “Muslim Youth” launched a late-morning attack on Fateh and “Palestinian Security Forces” positions in the Hettine and Taamir sectors inside the camp. Shooting quickly spread to the Darb el-Sim and Jabal el-Halib neighborhoods.
Following this deterioration on the ground, Fatah fighters launched an attack of their own, around midday on Saturday, against fundamentalist positions in Hettine, inside the camp. At around 1PM, an initial ceasefire was declared. Clashes resumed on a large scale shortly after 2 PM, spreading to new axes and sectors of the camp, notably in the Tireh, Ras el-Ahmar, el-Safsaf and Breksat areas, along el-Fawkani street and in the many streets of these zones.
In the afternoon, a delegation of Palestinian officials entered the camp (or at least tried to) to impose a ceasefire. Part of the delegation went to the Fatah-held district of Breksat, but was quickly targeted by mortar shells. Meanwhile, the other part of the delegation, which was supposed to go to the Islamist-controlled area, the headquarters of the Esbat el-Ansar group,
The intervention of the Palestinian ambassador
As the shooting continued, the Palestinian Ambassador, Ashraf Dabbour, entered the camp accompanied by members of the Joint Palestinian Action Committee to take steps on the ground to calm the situation. A “firm” ceasefire (similar to those at the start of the Lebanese war…) was proclaimed and was due to come into effect at 7:30 PM. The clashes did indeed diminish in intensity, but in a climate of very precarious calm. Later in the evening, clashes were to flare up again, with Fatah announcing that the fundamentalist group was rejecting the ceasefire. In fact, the Palestinian mediators left the camp at around 9:30 PM, paving the way for renewed clashes.
Around sixty people were injured and seven killed, including a young man from Ghazieh who was hit by a stray bullet. Shots were also fired in the Saida neighborhoods bordering the camp. This upsurge in clashes prompted hundreds of inhabitants of Ain el-Helweh to seek refuge in Saida, where they were housed in mosques and the city’s municipality after having left everything behind (refer to our colleague Maxime Pluvinet’s report from Saida).
The army’s injunction
All efforts made over the past few days to restore calm to the camp proved fruitless. The Lebanese army, which controls the entrances to Ain el-Helweh, issued a strongly worded statement early on Saturday afternoon, stressing that, in view of the continuing clashes, “the army command is adopting the appropriate measures and conducting the necessary contacts in order to put an end to these clashes.” The statement further included, “The army command calls on the parties concerned within the camp to observe a ceasefire in order to preserve their cause and safeguard the lives of the inhabitants in the areas bordering the camp.”
On a strictly political level, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati discussed the situation in Ain el-Helweh on Saturday with the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, who contacted senior Fatah leaders in Lebanon on Saturday to ask them to do everything in their power to put an end to the tragedy from which the camp’s population is suffering. But there remains a long way to go.
