Clashes test shaky ceasefire in Lebanon Palestinian camp
Fighting interrupted a fragile ceasefire in Lebanon's largest Palestinian camp on Tuesday, amid days of clashes that have left at least seven dead, according to first responders.
Violence broke out last Thursday in the Ain al-Helweh camp on the outskirts of the southern city of Sidon, just weeks after similar clashes pitted members of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah movement against Islamist militants.
The current fighting has killed at least "seven people, and wounded more than 80", Imad Hallak from the Palestinian Red Crescent's Lebanon branch said on Tuesday.
The casualties include both fighters and civilians, he told AFP.
On Monday evening, "an immediate and permanent ceasefire" was announced by Lebanon's General Security agency after a meeting between its chief, Palestinian security officials and the Lebanese Palestinian Dialogue Committee, the official National News Agency (NNA) said.
But occasional gunfire could be heard and clashes briefly broke out on Tuesday afternoon, an AFP correspondent in Sidon said.
Fatah said in a statement carried by the NNA that its members were "adhering to the ceasefire once again after thwarting an attack" by Islamists.
Ain al-Helweh is home to more than 54,000 registered refugees and thousands of Palestinians who joined them in recent years from neighbouring Syria, fleeing the civil war there.
The camp, Lebanon's largest, was created for Palestinians who were driven out or fled during the 1948 war at the time of Israel's creation.
Musa Abu Marzuk, a senior official from Islamist movement Hamas, arrived in Lebanon on Tuesday to meet "Lebanese officials and representatives of Palestinian factions in order to try to contain the situation in Ain al-Helweh", the NNA said.
It also reported that senior Fatah official Azzam al-Ahmad was visiting, holding meetings with Palestinian and Lebanese officials.
Five days of clashes that began in late July left 13 people dead and dozens wounded, in the worst outbreak of violence in the camp in years.
That fighting erupted after the death of an Islamist militant, followed by an ambush that killed five Fatah members including a military leader.
Lebanon hosts an estimated 250,000 Palestinian refugees, according to the UN agency.
Most live in Lebanon's 12 official camps, and face a variety of legal restrictions including on employment.
