Fatah fighter in an alley of the Ain al-Hilweh camp, August 2023. (Credit: Mohammad Yassine/L’Orient-Le Jour)
Heavy gunfire erupted in the Baraksat neighborhood, at the northern entrance of the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian camp in Saida (southern Lebanon), on Friday night, following a family dispute, according to our correspondent in the South. No injuries have been reported so far.
The Palestinian National Security Forces intervened to restore calm after residents called on the authorities to protect civilians and stop the shootings, our correspondent notes.
Armed clashes are common in Ain al-Hilweh, Lebanon’s largest camp, where fragile balances exist and multiple opposing factions coexist, alongside small Islamist groups at its edges that only the Hamas movement can approach. In early September, a major family dispute erupted, leaving two dead and several wounded.
These incidents come as the disarmament of Palestinian camps in Lebanon, initially scheduled for June 16 but delayed due to the war between Iran and Israel and the lack of cooperation from certain Palestinian factions, including Hamas, officially began on Aug. 21 in the Burj al-Barajneh camp in southern Beirut. This camp primarily hosts groups from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), including Fatah loyal to President Mahmoud Abbas, which sponsors and has endorsed the process for several months.
The killing of young Lebanese Elio Abou Hanna in the Shatila camp in Beirut on Oct. 26 by an armed Palestinian patrol dramatically underscored, for many Lebanese factions, especially Christian groups, the urgency of this disarmament.
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