BEIRUT — A prime official with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah group stated Sunday that Palestinian and Lebanese officers have given militant Islamic teams in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp till the top of the month handy over the accused killers of a Fatah common.
A fragile calm has largely prevailed within the Ein el-Hilweh camp since Thursday night time after the warring sides reached the newest in a sequence of cease-fire agreements. It adopted per week of intense combating that killed not less than 18 individuals and wounded and displaced tons of.
High officers from rival Palestinian teams Fatah and Hamas had traveled to Lebanon in an try to barter an finish to the clashes.
Azzam al-Ahmad, a member of Fatah’s central committee and of the Government Committee of the Palestine Liberation Group, stated in an interview with The Related Press on Sunday that he’s “optimistic about reaching an answer.” However, he added, if the accused will not be handed over by the top of the month, “all prospects are open.”
Al-Ahmad stated Fatah just isn’t against the Lebanese military getting into the camp to conduct an operation towards the militant Islamic teams ought to they not flip over the lads accused of killing Fatah army common Mohammad “Abu Ashraf” al-Armoushi.
By custom, Lebanese troopers don’t enter the Palestinian camps, that are managed by a community of Palestinian factions. The final time Lebanon’s military intervened in one of many camps was in 2007, when it battled Islamic extremists within the Nahr al-Bared camp in north Lebanon, razing most of it within the course of.
Hamas, which guidelines Gaza, has formally stood on the sidelines within the clashes between Fatah and a variety of excessive Islamic teams within the camp, however al-Ahmad accused Hamas members of taking over arms towards Fatah “in some areas of combating,” an accusation that Hamas has denied.
Senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk, who final week met with Lebanese officers and representatives from the Palestinian factions to attempt to attain a settlement to finish the clashes, stated in a message by way of the WhatsApp messaging software that “we weren’t concerned within the taking pictures in any respect” and that “there have been steady efforts” by Hamas to dealer a “cease-fire settlement in any kind.”
“It’s clear that clashes don’t make anybody hand over anybody,” he stated. “… Nobody is prepared to present himself up within the shadow of battle.”
Hamas spokesman in Lebanon Walid Kilani denied {that a} particular deadline had been set for handing over the killers.
“What was agreed upon there would be the formation of a joint safety power that features all Palestinian factions” to implement the handover of individuals “wished by either side,” he stated.
Each Fatah and Hamas have accused exterior forces of stoking the violence within the camp, which is dwelling to greater than 50,000 individuals, in an try and weaken the Palestinian trigger. Marzouk described it as a part of a “conspiracy towards the Palestinian diaspora,” whereas al-Ahmad stated the killing of Armoushi was “not solely an assassination case, however a case of tried elimination of the Ein el-Hilweh camp.”
The United Nations company for Palestinian refugees stated Friday that 18 individuals had been killed and 140 injured within the newest spherical of clashes, which broke out Sept. 7.
Almost 1,000 individuals displaced by the combating had been staying in emergency shelters arrange by UNRWA whereas tons of extra had been sheltering in at different websites, together with a close-by mosque and within the courtyard of the municipality constructing of town of Sidon, which is adjoining to the camp, or with family members.
Earlier this summer time, there have been a number of days of avenue battles within the Ein el-Hilweh camp between Abbas’ Fatah motion and militant Islamic teams after attackers gunned down Armoushi and 4 of his companions July 30.
The assassination was apparently an act of retaliation after an unknown gunman shot at Islamist militant Mahmoud Khalil, killing a companion of his as a substitute.
These avenue battles left not less than 13 {dead} and dozens wounded, and compelled tons of to flee from their houses.