Naharnet

Army Commander: Bids to Move Clashes Outside Ain el-Hilweh Will be Deterred

Army Commander General Joseph Aoun stressed on Thursday that the army will respond firmly to any attempt to move the armed clashes out of the southern Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh, the National News Agency reported.

“The army will firmly respond to any bid aiming to target military positions or residential areas around the camp, or attempts to move the clashes outside,” said Aoun while touring the army's units deployed in the southern city of Sidon and in the vicinity of Ain el-Hilweh.

Aoun asked leaders of the army units to “intensify security measures mainly around the camp and on the entrances leading to it in a bid to protect civilians and prevent outlaws from sneaking in.”

The army commander pointed out saying “it is unacceptable for infighting triggered by terror and extremist groups to erupt from time to time, endangering the safety of Palestinians and people in the vicinity of the camp, and negatively affecting the economic and living situation in Sidon.

“The safety of Palestinian camps and any part of Lebanon's territory is part of the overall national security. It is therefore in everyone's interest to contribute to the preservation of stability and not provide safe haven for terrorists and wanted fugitives,” he concluded.

Clashes between security forces and radical Islamists erupted on Friday in the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon which made residents flee.

Traces of violence spilled beyond the camp's boundaries, and Lebanon's authorities closed the highway connecting the city to southern Lebanon. Sidon's government hospital was struck by a rocket.

Representatives of several of the largest Palestinian factions, including Fatah, ordered the Islamist fighter Bilal Badr and his followers to hand themselves over to the authorities or face a decisive crackdown. The camp's radical groups have regularly fallen afoul of Palestinian security forces for hiding fugitives from the Lebanese law. Per an agreement with the PLO, Lebanon's security forces are not authorized to enter the camp.

Source: Naharnet, Associated Press


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