Daily Star - Palestinian Refugees Camps

By Mohammed Zaatari
Daily Star staff

BEIRUT: Fatah commander in Lebanon Brigadier Sultan Abu al-Aynayn on Sunday accused external parties of seeking to “export” fundamentalists to refugee camps across Lebanon. “We have taken measures to prevent Al-Qaeda from infiltrating Palestinian refugee camps after we received information that external parties were seeking to export extremists, particularly from Iraq,” Abu al-Aynayn said in an interview with AFP.
“We have received information that external parties are seeking to stir up tension inside the camps by sending some fundamentalists from Iraq and other countries,” he added.
On Sunday, calm was restored to the restive Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh following clashes between the mainstream Fatah Movement and Islamist group Jund al-Sham.
Armed clashes erupted Saturday in Ain al-Hilweh between militants from Fatah and Jund al-Sham, leaving one person wounded.
Machineguns and rocket-propelled grenades were used in the clashes, forcing dozens to flee the camp.
After around half an hour, the joint security committee inside the camp intervened to stop the fighting as contacts managed to put an end to the clashes amid a state of tension that prevailed in the camp after rival fighters refused to withdraw from the streets.
Mounir al-Maqdah, who commands the main Palestinian police force in Ain al-Hilweh, said the clashes were contained after a meeting for the camp’s security committee. He said the fighting erupted when Jund al-Sham members fired at a Fatah bureau in the camp, located on the outskirts of the coastal city of Sidon.
The camp’s security committee ordered the deployment of security forces across the camp in order to maintain stability.
However, traffic inside the camp was minor and very few pedestrians were seen on the streets of Ain al-Hilweh.
On Sunday, the Lebanese Army reopened the two main northern entrances of the camp, after they had shut them down during the clashes.
Palestinian sources inside the camp expressed fears that the scenario of the northern Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp would be repeated in Ain al-Hilweh. Nahr al-Bared was reduced to rubble following 106 days of fighting between the Lebanese Army and the Al-Qaeda-inspired Fatah al-Islam.
Lebanese security sources, however said such fears would not become a reality if various Palestinian factions “remain aware of the challenges.”
Palestinian sources inside the camp said Lebanese security forces have warned factions not to mess with Lebanon’s security. – With agencies