Since Saturday, July 29, fighting has pitted Fatah fighters – the main Palestinian organization, led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas – against Islamist groups in the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. According to information gathered Monday by the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), “eleven people were killed, and 40 others injured” in the Aïn El-Héloué camp, located in the south of the country. UNRWA Director Dorothee Klaus said a UN agency staff member was among the injured. Medical sources had earlier reported eight deaths in three days of clashes.
“Two UNRWA schools were damaged,” Ms. Klaus said, adding that the agency had to temporarily suspend its services in the camp due to the violence. “We urge all armed actors to respect all buildings (…) of UNRWA, in accordance with international law,” she added.
Clashes with automatic weapons and anti-tank rockets 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. Then, the fighting continued on Monday, despite the announcement of a ceasefire on Sunday evening. Shells fell outside the camp, forcing businesses and schools to close in Saïda, located in the district of Sidon, a few kilometers north of the camp.
The Lebanese army does not deploy in the Palestinian camps
UNRWA said 2,000 people had been forced to flee Aïn El-Héloué camp since Saturday, including women and children. “We fled the combat zone (…). Shells are falling in the streets,” a 75-year-old displaced woman told Agence France-Presse, on condition of anonymity. “We carried arms to fight Israel, not to kill each other,” she added.
Clashes between rival groups often take place in Aïn El-Héloué, where 54,000 Palestinian refugees live, along with thousands of other Palestinians who have fled the war in Syria. The camp houses extremists and fugitives wanted by the Lebanese authorities.
Under a long-standing agreement, the Lebanese army does not deploy to Palestinian camps in Lebanon, where security is provided by Palestinian factions.
In Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian presidency on Sunday denounced the “terrorist assassination” of Fatah members.
More than 450,000 Palestinians are registered as refugees in Lebanon with UNRWA, but the actual number of those still residing in Lebanon is around 250,000, according to UN estimates.
