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Four Hamas members were killed yesterday in armed clashes in the Burj al-Shemali Palestinian refugee camp in Sur. The fighting erupted as mourners buried a Hamas member killed in an explosion at a storage unit in the camp on Friday night. Hamas has blamed rival group Fatah for opening fire on the funeral procession. Initial reports of Friday’s night’s blast said it took place in an arms depot belonging to Hamas, but circumstances surrounding the incident grew murky late Friday night and into Saturday, with neither the Civil Defense nor the Lebanese Army releasing a statement on either a death toll or the number of casualties. Eventually, on Saturday, Hamas denied that a weapons cache had blown up, instead claiming the explosion took place because of faulty electrical wiring in a warehouse “containing gas and oxygen canisters as well as detergents and COVID-19 disinfectants.” Ahead of yesterday’s fighting, Lebanese Forces head Samir Geagea had called for an official narrative of Friday’s events. However, with the Lebanese Army, by longstanding agreement, not having jurisdiction inside the Palestinian camps, such an account may not be forthcoming. Hamas and Fatah have been at odds since 2007, when Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip after a week of fighting.

More than 62,000 people received a COVID-19 vaccination shot over the weekend in a two-day Pfizer vaccine marathon that coincided with the confirmation on Saturday of the country’s first cases of the coronavirus’ Omicron variant. Health Minister Firass Abiad yesterday morning lauded the drive — which offered a first, second or third dose of the vaccine to anyone aged 12 and above — as “successful,” before later in day tweeting that 62,631 inoculations had been administered over its course. This weekend’s drive comes as the government plans to bring into force measures aimed at curbing infection rates over the holiday period. Rampant transmission last December and its resultant pressure on the health system led to a January to March countrywide lockdown. As daily case numbers tick up, and with the country in deepening economic turmoil and its health care sector even more understaffed and undersupplied than it was 12 months ago, fears are mounting over how Lebanon would fare in the event of a similar infection surge in early 2022.

Hezbollah has indicated it will support the holding of parliamentary elections either on a March or May date, or on any other date that ‘respects the constitution.’ MP Hasan Fadlallah made the party’s position clear while speaking in his Bint Jbeil constituency yesterday, acknowledging that while some people still express doubts about whether or not the polls will be held, Hezbollah is “making all the necessary preparations” to participate in the vote. The Shiite party’s support for any constitutionally valid polling date appears to oppose the stance of its Christian ally, the Free Patriotic Movement, and its Strong Lebanon parliamentary bloc, which on Nov. 17 lodged an appeal before the Constitutional Council in an effort to overturn the electoral law amendment that moves the date of the ballot forward from May to March 27. The FPM argues that moving the polling date forward will preclude thousands of voters from casting ballots as they will not have attained the legal voting age in time for the elections. It remains unclear what, if any, electoral alliances Hezbollah and the FPM will embark on for the upcoming ballot.

The Internal Security Forces said on Saturday it had busted an attempt to smuggle a large quantity of captagon narcotics to Saudi Arabia. The announcement comes amid the kingdom’s ongoing blanket ban on Lebanese imports and just days after Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi said the country was endeavoring to curtail the outflow of illicit goods from the country. The ISF said the drugs had been intended to be sent in coffee bags bound for Saudi Arabia via Jordan. The kingdom first prohibited imports of Lebanese produce in April after more than 5 million captagon pills were found inside a pomegranate shipment from Lebanon. It extended its ban to all Lebanese imports in October as it reacted to controversial comments by then Information Minister George Kurdahi about the Saudi role in the war in Yemen. The remarks also led the kingdom to sever diplomatic ties with Lebanon. The prospects of rapprochement grew on Dec. 3 with Kurdahi’s resignation and over the days that followed, as, in the presence of the French president, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman and Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati spoke by phone; however, while the rhetoric on both sides has warmed, no concrete steps toward a reparation of relations have manifested. The annual summit of Gulf Cooperation Council heads of state begins tomorrow, with Gulf security concerns at the top of the agenda, according to regional media. Gulf posture towards Lebanon could well be discussed, as the GCC increasingly frames its stance towards Lebanon in security terms.