2 Dead, Several Hurt in Clash at Shatila Palestinian Camp

Two people were killed and several others were wounded in an armed clash Monday at the Shatila Palestinian refugee camp in southern Beirut.

“Palestinian nationals Wael al-Tull and Jamil al-Issawi, 73, were killed and several people were injured in clashes between a Palestinian group and another loyal to Nasser al-Droubi and the al-Zir family at Shatila camp's peripheries,” state-run National News Agency reported.

Earlier, MTV said one person was killed and several others were wounded in a gunfight between a group loyal to Arab Movement Party chief Shaker al-Berjawi and a number of Palestinians.

According to Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3), gunmen loyal to al-Droubi and Bilal al-Zir clashed with “Palestinians from the camp's security committee, leaving one of its members wounded.”

An Nahar newspaper also said the gunfight involved elements loyal to Shaker al-Berjawi, Bilal al-Zir and Palestinians groups.

Later on Monday, the army deployed on the road separating al-Hayy al-Gharbi, where the al-Zir clan is located, and the Shatila camp, LBCI TV reported.

On March 23, a person was killed and at least ten were wounded in clashes between armed Salafists and supporters of al-Berjawi near the Sports City center in Beirut.

Berjawi is a veteran militant whose career has spanned multiple decades and causes.

He fought in the Lebanese civil war under the banner of the Palestine Liberation Organization before heading to Iraq to fight alongside now executed dictator Saddam Hussein's forces in his 1980-88 war with neighboring Iran.

At the time the Iraqi and Syrian regimes were bitter rivals, and on his return home, Berjawi was a staunch opponent of the troop presence in Lebanon which Syria maintained from 1976 to 2005, earning him a spell in prison in Damascus.

But he later changed sides and became a staunch ally of the Assad regime.

Y.R.

S.D.B.