Naharnet

1 Dead, 5 Hurt as Hizbullah Members Clash with Palestinians in Burj al-Barajneh

One person was killed and five others were wounded Sunday in an armed clash between members of Hizbullah and Palestinian young men near the Burj al-Barajneh refugee camp in Beirut's southern suburbs.

State-run National News Agency identified the dead man as Palestinian national Mohammed al-Simrawi, saying the gunfight erupted when a number of Palestinians in a wedding convoy refused that their cars be searched by a Hizbullah checkpoint.

“Security forces and representatives of the factions of the Palestine Liberation Organization intervened in a bid to contain the incident as clashes abated,” the agency added.

Earlier, MTV said a number of Palestinians “opened fire on a Hizbullah checkpoint near the Burj al-Barajneh slaughterhouse after they refused to be searched.”

Al-Jadeed television said Hizbullah was “communicating with the camp's security committee to pacify the situation.”

LBCI television said protesters burned tires at the camp's entrance and shouted anti-Hizbullah slogans in the wake of the clash.

Later on Sunday, NNA said a meeting got underway between Hizbullah and the Palestinian factions at the party's office in Haret Hreik and that a joint statement would be issued after the talks.

Hizbullah had beefed up its security measures in and around Beirut's southern suburbs in the wake of a powerful car bombing that rocked the Rweiss neighborhood in Dahieh and left 27 people dead and around 300 wounded.


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