At least two people have been killed in renewed clashes among Palestinian factions in a refugee camp in southern Lebanon as a ceasefire agreement agreed earlier was not honored by the rival sides, state media reported.
One person was killed in the fighting inside the Ein el-Hilweh camp and another was killed by a stray bullet outside the camp, the National News Agency (NNA) said on Saturday, adding that several people were also wounded outside the camp by stray bullets.
The sound of heavy machine gun fire and rocket-propelled grenades echoed throughout the camp and its outskirts, witnesses told DPA news agency.
The clashes, which erupted on Saturday inside Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp pitted members of the mainstream Fatah Movement and a Palestinian armed group calling itself Muslim Youth.
Reporting from outside the Ein el-Hilweh camp on Saturday, Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr said neither side is backing down in the deadly confrontation.
“Efforts to end the fighting have so far failed. Ceasefire agreements have broken down time and time again. The Fatah Movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is at war with a number of armed groups that call themselves the Muslim Youth,” Khodr said.
“Fatah is demanding that the Muslim Youth hand over eight suspects believed to be responsible for assassinating one of its senior commanders. They are also demanding that the Muslim Youth vacate positions that they have set up in UN-run schools inside the camp so that the academic school year can begin. So far, the Muslim Youth is refusing to do that,” she added.
A public hospital which is located on the outskirts of the camp had to transfer all its patients to other facilities in the port city of Sidon because it was hit by several stray bullets.
Source: Al Jazeera
