Lebanon: Calm returns to Ain al-Hilweh camp following “individual” clashes
The expulsion of militants five years ago has reduced tensions to limited problems
Friday – 10 Shaaban 1444 AH – 03 March 2023 AD Issue number [
16166]
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An archive photo of an armed demonstration in Ain al-Hilweh camp in May 2022 (AFP)
Beirut: Nazir Reda
A cautious calm prevailed in the Ain al-Hilweh camp for Palestinian refugees in Sidon (southern Lebanon), yesterday, Thursday, following a clash between the “Fatah movement” and those affiliated with a radical Islamic organization, which resulted in the death of one person and the injury of 7 others, and the camp residents described it as “individual”, and communications were active. to gather its tails.
A clash broke out on the night of Wednesday – Thursday between a group of young men affiliated with the “Fatah movement” and others from extremist Islamic groups in the Safsaf neighborhood of the camp, following a dispute occurred between the two parties that occurred while transporting an injured person from the neighborhood who was shot by mistake, according to the agency. The National Media », the Lebanese official.
The problem developed into clashes that resulted in the injury of 8 people, soon following one of them died at night, which rekindled the tension. Where the shooting was renewed in the evening, before the political contacts might partially address the problem.
A cautious calm prevailed yesterday, while gunmen deployed in the streets of the camp, and schools run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) were closed.
Camp sources insist that the incident was isolated, as a young man affiliated with the extremist Osbat al-Ansar faction opened fire on a group that was transporting the injured young man affiliated with Fatah to the hospital, which led to the death of a young man of his wounds, who is affiliated with Fatah. .
The sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that the contacts taking place in the camp “demand (Asbat al-Ansar) to hand over the person involved in the shooting to the security committee, which in turn will hand him over to the Lebanese judiciary, in accordance with the existing custom in the camp.”
The Palestinian camps in Lebanon assume their “self-security” and the Lebanese security forces do not enter them according to a tacit agreement with the Palestinian factions, but those accused of breaking the law are being handed over to the Lebanese judiciary. According to security reports, many outlaws and wanted persons have sought refuge in the camp. As a result of poverty and the weapons spread in it, it turned into a fertile ground for extremism.
However, the problems that have erupted since 2018 are mostly individual problems, following the “great battle” waged by “Fatah” once morest the extremist “Bilal Badr Group” in 2017, which resulted in dozens of deaths, and ended with Badr’s escape to Idlib in northwestern Syria, and he became The camp is now “largely controlled” under Fatah control.
Palestinian sources in the camp told Asharq Al-Awsat that that battle with the Badr group “was the last with the extremists,” although the “Usbat al-Ansar” and “Islamic Mujahid Movement” factions still have influence in the camp, and there are neighborhoods in the east of the camp where there are openly Islamic organizations.
The sources indicate that the “Islamic Mujahid Movement” faction, led by Sheikh Jamal Khattab, played a mediating role in later periods between “Fatah” and the Palestinian Security Committee in the camp on the one hand, and Islamic organizations or extremist personalities on the other, to put an end to tensions. As for the “Usbat al-Ansar” faction, whose influence and military status declined, “its experience underwent a major transformation in the last five years, and it took on a more moderate character.” internationally in recent years, which bears indications of a change in political behavior and literature.
These indicators are welcomed by the camp residents. As “these organizations began to wear neckties”; Referring to its moderation, which “coincides with transformations in the region that left its effects on the organizations of political Islam following 2017,” and at the same time coincided with the decline of extremist rhetoric in Lebanon, following the Lebanese army’s control of the eastern border with Syria within the battle of “Dawn of the Outskirts,” and the intensification of Lebanese security prosecutions of all extremist cells in the country, which undermined their influence. The sources say that the camp “often echoes the developments on the Lebanese scene, is affected by them and identifies with them.”
The operations of the Lebanese official security forces inside Lebanon included the pursuit of extremists in Ain al-Hilweh camp; In 2017, the Intelligence Directorate of the Lebanese Army carried out raids, which resulted in the arrest of suspects belonging to an ISIS cell headed by an Egyptian who was hiding in Ain al-Hilweh camp. In 2021, the Information Division of the Internal Security Forces arrested a Palestinian wanted by the judiciary under 7 prosecutions for the crimes of belonging to a terrorist organization, belonging to a terrorist gang, and possession of war weapons.
More than 54,000 registered Palestinian refugees live in Ain al-Hilweh camp, the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon. They have been joined in recent years by thousands of Palestinians fleeing the war in Syria.
There are more than 450,000 Palestinians registered with UNRWA in Lebanon, most of whom live in one of 12 official refugee camps, often in squalid conditions and facing a range of legal restrictions. Including restrictions that hinder their employment.
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