The northern entrance of the Ain al-Hilweh camp in South Lebanon, August 2, 2023. (Credit: Muntasser Abdallah/File photo/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — One man was killed in Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in Saida on Friday, after being shot by a man with a machine gun. The victim was standing at an intersection in a vegetable market within the camp, a security source inside the Ain al-Hilweh told L'Orient Today's correspondent in the South.
According to the source, the shooting followed a personal dispute between the two men. Ain al-Hilweh is the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, with a population of over 80,000, according to an UNRWA figure from last year.
The Joint Security Committee, composed of several representatives of Palestinian factions in the camp, is working to control the situation with all parties, the source said.
A statement issued by the National and Islamic Political Leadership, a collective of religious leaders and activists from the Saida area, said that "the assassination of the young man occurred ... within the context of escalating security tensions in the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp" which are "tarnishing" the Palestinian cause amid the ongoing Israeli war on Gaza.
"We condemn this heinous crime ... and we emphasize the necessity of turning in the perpetrator to the relevant Lebanese security authorities," the statement concluded.
Last summer, deadly clashes broke out between Islamist factions and the nationalist Fatah movement in Ain al-Hilweh, leaving a dozen people dead, hundreds displaced, and causing extensive damage. In September, the Palestinian factions agreed to a cease-fire.
Reporting contributed by Muntasser Abdallah.