The northern entrance of the Ain al-Hilweh camp in South Lebanon, August 2, 2023. (Credit: Muntasser Abdallah/L'Orient Today)
SAIDA — The situation in the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp near Saida, in southern Lebanon, escalated Monday night as gunfire and a grenade explosion were heard in the camp following the assassination of Fatah's Palestinian National Security member Yassine Aqel.
Aqel was shot with a machine gun yesterday in the Ras al-Ahmar neighborhood and immediately rushed to the Humanitarian Call Hospital within the camp, where he succumbed to his wounds shortly after.
The incident caused heightened tensions in the area and in response, the camp's Security Committee initiated efforts to diffuse the situation by engaging in communications between concerned parties.
Monday evening's shootings, following the assassination, were allegedly perpetrated by Aqel's relatives and came amid sustained tension. Stray bullets landed in the nearby Mar Elias neighborhood in Haret Saida, damaging a water tank.
By Tuesday morning, Ain al-Hilweh experienced a return to relative calm.
In response to the escalating situation, the Palestinian political leadership in Saida announced that discussions occurred between different factions in the camp to ensure the suspect is handed over to Lebanese authorities "within a specified timeframe."
"The political leadership's meetings will remain ongoing until the decision is implemented."
Residents of Safouriya, Aqel's neighborhood, issued a statement to the residents of Safsaf, the suspect's neighborhood, demanding the perpetrator of the assassination be immediatly handed over to the Lebanese state. They warned that "if the murderer is protected, further actions would be taken."
Approximately 54,000 Palestinian refugees live in the Ain al-Hilweh camp — the largest in Lebanon — along with thousands of other Palestinians who fled the war in Syria. The camp is frequently the scene of armed clashes between rival groups.
In September 2023, a week of clashes between Fatah and other Islamic factions, including Jund al-Sham and al-Shabab al-Muslim, left at least 30 people dead.
Aqel is the son-in-law of the late Abu Ashraf al-Armoushi, the Fatah member who was killed by Islamist militant groups in Ain al-Hilweh last year.