SIDON: At least six people were killed on Sunday in clashes in south Lebanon’s restive Ain al-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp, said Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah movement and a source at the camp.

The fighting between Fatah and Islamists in the camp, which erupted overnight, killed a Fatah military leader and four of his colleagues, the secularist movement said.

A Palestinian source inside the camp, speaking on condition of anonymity, said an “Islamist from the Al Shabab Al Muslim group” was also killed and six others including the group’s leader were wounded.

A journalist said clashes at Ain al-Helweh, the largest of the 12 Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, were still ongoing on Sunday afternoon.

Fatah in a statement confirmed the death of commander Ashraf al-Armouchi and four of his “comrades” during a “heinous operation”.

The statement denounced an “abominable and cowardly crime” aimed at undermining the “security and stability” of the Pales­tinian camps in Lebanon.

A Lebanese soldier was also wounded, hit by shrapnel from “a mortar shell that fell in one of the military posts”, the army said on Twitter, which is being rebranded as X.

His condition was reported as stable.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati in a statement called the timing of the clashes “suspicious in the current regional and international context”.

Mikati criticised “repea­ted attempts to use Leba­non” as a battleground for the settling of outside scores “at the expense of Lebanon and the Lebanese”.

“We urge the Palesti­nian leadership to cooperate with the army to control the security situation and deliver to the Leb­anese authorities those who compromise it,” his statement added.

A ceasefire was agreed from 6pm during a meeting of Palestinian factions inc­luding Fatah, also attended by members of the Leba­nese Amal and Hezbollah movements, a joint statement afterwards said.

A journalist reported that the sound of gunfire lessened in the evening.

Fighting between rival groups is common in Ain al-Helweh, which is home to more than 54,000 registered Palestinian refugees who have been joined in recent years by thousands of Palestinians fleeing the conflict in Syria.

By long-standing convention, the Lebanese army does not enter Palestinian refugee camps in the country, leaving the factions themselves to handle security. The camp has gained notoriety as a refuge for extremists and fugitives.

Published in Dawn, July 31st, 2023