An “immediate and lasting cease-fire” was declared after a top Lebanese general met with officials from rival Palestinian factions, following days of fighting in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp, which left several people dead and dozens wounded.
The new ceasefire failed to halt the fighting, however, residents and officials in the camp said in the hours after the agreement was announced. It was the latest in a series of cease-fires that only lasted for hours before fighting erupted again.
The announcement was made in Beirut by the General Security Directorate.
Gunfire and explosions were heard throughout the day inside the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp, claiming the life of at least one person. Stray bullets and shells hit residential areas in the country’s third-largest city.
The fighting that broke out Thursday night after nearly a month of calm in Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp near the port city of Sidon between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah group and militant Islamist groups has left six people dead and more than 50 wounded according to medical officials and state media.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, shared its own tally on Sunday saying four people were killed and 60 others wounded.
Clashes erupted as Fatah and other allied militant factions in the camp had intended to crack down on suspects accused of killing Fatah military general, Abu Ashraf al Armoushi, in the camp in late July.
One of the men suspected of being involved in Armoushi’s killing, Izzedine Abu Dawoud, was critically wounded Monday inside the camp and rushed to hospital where doctors announced him as “clinically dead”, Lebanese security officials said.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
Lebanese security officials and members of Fatah said they do not expect a permanent halt to the clashes in the immediate future, despite the new ceasefire.
Elias Farhat, a retired Lebanese army general who is now a researcher of military affairs, said no ceasefire will hold unless the suspects in Armoushi’s killing are handed over to Lebanese authorities for prosecution as demanded by a committee of Palestinian factions in the camp.
While some have called for the Lebanese army to intervene, Lebanese security forces generally do not enter the Palestinian camps, and Farhat said there has been “no political decision” to do so now.
Stray bullets hit the municipality building in Sidon damaging windows without hurting anyone, the state-run National News Agency said. The public Lebanese University was closed and the Lebanese Army closed off the main highway that links Beirut with southern Lebanon near the camp and traffic was directed toward a coastal road due to the fighting. “The city is suffering. The civilians in the camp are suffering,” Lebanese legislator who represents Sidon Abdul-Rahman Bizri said in an interview with The Associated Press.