A crowd in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh during the funeral of Samer al-Hajj, the security chief of Hamas in the camp, on Aug. 10, 2024. (Credit: Mohammad Yassine/L'Orient Today)
Secretary-General of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Azzam al-Ahmad ignited controversy on Wednesday after claiming in an interview that Ain al-Hilweh, a Palestinian refugee camp near Saida in southern Lebanon, has become a haven for "terrorists, takfiris, and extremists," and alleging the presence of fighters from various nationalities.
In a televised interview on the Falastinouna channel, Ahmad stated that “terrorist and takfiri forces have infiltrated Ain el-Hilweh” and created “chaos” there, adding that some of these militants are “Lebanese, Palestinian, Syrian, Iraqi, and even from the Gulf region.” “They have taken over Ain el-Hilweh,” he asserted. Referring to the “Miyé Miyé experience,” a small Palestinian camp in southern Lebanon, he said that Fatah was ready to do the same—“why not”—in Ain el-Hilweh.
Ain al-Hilweh has regularly been the scene of clashes, often deadly, between different Palestinian factions, often between members of Fatah and others from Islamist groups. Between July and September 2023, weeks of fighting pitted fighters from different factions against each other in the streets of the camp, resulting in around 15 deaths.
'Irresponsible' statement
The joint statement included the following factions: The Islamic Strugglers Association, Islamic Jihad Movement, Ansar Allah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
A Palestinian activist in the camp also told L’Orient Today that Azzam’s comments were “irresponsible. This person came to cause civil unrest inside the country and the Lebanese government should kick him out of Lebanon.” The activist also stated that Azzam’s position served the “Zionist enemy.”
“These options open the door to the repetition of previous destructive experiences, such as what happened in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp,” the statement said.
In 2007, the Lebanese Army and the Palestinian militant group Fatah al-Islam engaged in an armed clash at the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon.
The conflict erupted when Fatah al-Islam clashed with the army after an attempt to arrest the group’s members, who were suspected of involvement in bombings and other violent activities.
“Despite the difficult humanitarian and security conditions that the camp suffers from, Ain al-Hilweh remains an integral Palestinian environment, hosting thousands of families. It is unacceptable to portray it as a lawless area or as posing a security threat. This rhetoric creates a divisive atmosphere that is rejected and does not serve the higher Palestinian interest,” the statement said. “We affirm that any security or social issue within the camp must be addressed through dialogue and coordination with the concerned parties, not through media exaggerations or threats of resorting to force.”
President Joseph Aoun met, Wednesday afternoon at Baabda Palace, the head of the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee, Ramez Dimashkieh, who updated him on ongoing contacts with the Palestinian side to discuss the mechanism for implementing the Lebanese authorities' decision to collect arms from Palestinian camps as part of the process of restoring the state's monopoly on armed force.