Cautious Calm in Ain el-Hilweh, Sidon on Strike Denouncing Fights

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Cautious calm prevailed Wednesday night in the densely-packed Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Hilweh, after one week of deadly clashes between the Fatah Movement and Islamist groups that left one civilian dead and six others injured.

The ceasefire agreement, reached at around 7 pm on Tuesday, still stands except for a personal dispute that erupted after midnight in al-Tahtani street leaving one person injured, the National News Agency reported on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the southern port city of Sidon observed a general strike upon the request of MP Bahia Hariri, denouncing the inter-Palestinian fighting and the blood shed in the camp. Schools, social and economic institutions were closed for the day.

The fighting in Ain el-Hilweh near Sidon has pitted members of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement against hardline Islamist groups.

Even as factions declared a ceasefire from the Palestinian embassy in Beirut, plumes of smoke could be seen rising from the camp on Tuesday, AFP's correspondent said.

Intermittent fighting broke out on Thursday after Fatah pulled out of a joint committee that maintained security in Ain el-Hilweh, but the violence later intensified, AFP's correspondent said. 

Palestinian factions meeting at their embassy in Beirut on Tuesday announced that they had agreed on a ceasefire to end the fighting.

According to Lebanon's National News Agency, the groups said they would re-establish the joint security apparatus.

By long-standing convention, Lebanon's army does not enter Palestinian refugee camps, where security is managed by joint committees of Palestinian factions.

In recent years, tensions have risen between Fatah and the Jund al-Sham Islamist group in the camp. 

The UN's Palestinian refugee agency said on Tuesday it had halted all services in the camp for the second day because of the unrest.

Ain al-Hilweh is an impoverished, overcrowded camp near the coastal city of Sidon, and is home to some 61,000 Palestinians, including 6,000 who have fled the war in Syria.

Comments 1
Thumb i.report 01 March 2017, 13:45

Just called my friend, only half of Sidon is closed. A conclusion should be drawn from this.