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Two killed in renewed clashes in south Lebanon refugee camp

Armed men walk in the streets of the Palestinian Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp near Lebanon’s southern port city of Sidon following fierce clashes August 22, 2015. (Photo by AFP)

At least two people have lost their lives during renewed clashes between members of two armed groups in the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon.

Skirmishes erupted late Wednesday between gunmen from the Jund al-Sham extremist group and the supporters of the Palestinian Fatah movement in the Ain al-Hilweh camp near the southern Lebanese port city of Sidon, situated 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of the capital, Beirut.

Palestinian sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said on Thursday that a Fatah official and a civilian had been killed in the firefight.

The development came only hours after armed rivals in Ain al-Hilweh agreed to a ceasefire following several days of clashes.

On August 25, at least three people lost their lives and 36 others were injured in clashes between Jund al-Sham militants and Fatah advocates in the northern part of the Ain al-Hilweh camp. Two days before, two Fatah members had been killed as Jund al-Sham sought to assassinate Ashraf al-Armoushi, Fatah’s security chief, inside the camp. Armoushi escaped the attack unscathed. According to local medical sources, a total of at least 15 people, civilians and non-civilians, were wounded, some critically.

Ain al-Hilweh had a population of about 70,000 residents before the figure swelled nearly two-fold as a result of the influx of refugees fleeing the foreign-sponsored conflict in Syria.

Under a tacit deal struck after the 1975-1990 civil war, the Lebanese army does not enter the country’s 12 official Palestinian refugee camps where the factions themselves handle security.


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