At least 11 people have been killed and over 100 have been wounded as Fatah and Islamist groups continued to clash for a fourth day in the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon on Monday, according to Lebanese reports.
The clashes broke out on Thursday night, with RPG and machine gun fire displacing hundreds. A number of civilians in nearby towns have been injured by stray bullets as well.
The renewed violence came about a month after 13 people were killed amid clashes between Fatah and Islamist groups in the refugee camp. Thousands of people were displaced due to those clashes.
The clashes in late July were sparked after the killing of an Islamic militant by Fatah militants, followed by the killing of Fatah official Abu Ashraf al-Armoushi and four other Fatah members in the camp. Fatah has repeatedly demanded that the militants who killed Armoushi be given up.
Despite intensive efforts by Palestinian and Lebanese officials to implement a ceasefire, all such efforts had seemingly failed as of Monday afternoon.
Suspect in killing of Fatah official seriously injured in clashes
One of the eight suspects in the killing of Armoushi, Ezzedine Abu Dawoud (Dabaya), was seriously injured and hospitalized on Monday, according to Lebanon's National News Agency.
On Sunday, five Lebanese soldiers were injured, including one in critical condition, after shells fired from the clashes in Ain al-Hilweh fell on military positions in the area.
On Monday, the State Security Office in Sidon was hit by stray bullets from the clashes.
The commander of the Lebanese Army, Gen. Joseph Aoun, met with the Palestinian Authority's ambassador to Lebanon, Ashraf Dabour, on Monday to discuss the situation in Ain al-Hilweh.
Fatah calls for unity in fight against Islamists
Additionally, on Monday, representatives of Fatah and the Independent Nasserite Movement – INM (Al-Murabitoun) met in Mar Elias refugee camp in Beirut and condemned the Islamist groups taking part in the clashes. They stated that "the criminal attacks of the terrorists who fled from the Lebanese regions and the Syrian lands on our people in Ain al-Hilweh camp are an attack on the security stability of our Palestinian people, and all the Lebanese and Palestinian forces must unify efforts to eliminate these terrorist outposts, which today constitute a serious and dangerous threat to national security, not only in Ain al-Hilweh camp, but throughout Lebanon."
The two movements rejected presenting the situation as infighting between Palestinian factions.
The Hamas movement in Lebanon responded to the ongoing violence on Monday, rejected claims by some Lebanese politicians that it, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, and Hezbollah were supporting the Islamist groups.
Hamas stated that such claims "only serve the Israeli occupation and the enemies of the resistance who are working to tear apart the internal Palestinian ranks.”
The Amal Movement, which is allied with Hezbollah, called the clashes "suspicious" warning that "no one will emerge victorious except over himself, and everyone is in the category of defeat.”
The movement additionally called for the Palestinians in the camp to focus on fighting Israel.
Elias Al-Bisari, Lebanon's director general of public security, warned "we will not stand idly by as a result of what is happening in Ain al-Hilweh," in an interview with the Lebanese alJoumhouria newspaper on Monday.
Bisari accused Israel of being involved in the violence, stating "Certainly there are hidden hands, and the Israeli factor is present strongly, and regardless of the conclusion, let us describe the reality that shows that Palestinian weapons are used inappropriately and threaten internal stability, and the Palestinians are displaced and killed."
Bisari stressed that the Palestinian factions must respect the sovereignty of the Lebanese state and cannot take the law into their own hands.