At least 15 people were killed and more than 150 others were injured as a result of violent clashes between Palestinian factions in the Palestinian refugee camp Ein El Hilweh in southern Lebanon, the NNA news agency reported on Thursday.
The fighting erupted on Wednesday night and continued throughout Thursday, with heavy gunfire and explosions heard in the camp, which is home to about 80,000 Palestinians and is considered a stronghold of Islamist groups.
The clashes pitted members of the Fatah movement, which is loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, against rival factions, including supporters of the Islamist group Ansar Allah and former Fatah official Munir al-Maqdah.
The Lebanese army deployed troops and tanks around the camp to prevent the violence from spilling over to nearby areas, but did not intervene inside the camp, where Palestinian factions have autonomy under a decades-old agreement.
The Lebanese Red Cross said it had evacuated 15 wounded people from the camp and transferred them to hospitals outside. It also said it was coordinating with the Palestinian Red Crescent to provide medical assistance to the injured inside the camp.
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said it was “deeply concerned” about the situation and called for an immediate end to the hostilities. It also said it had suspended its operations in the camp until further notice due to security reasons.
The camp has witnessed frequent clashes between rival Palestinian factions and Islamist militants in recent years, amid rising tensions over the political situation in Lebanon and the region. The last major outbreak of violence occurred in April 2017, when seven people were killed and dozens were wounded in four days of fighting.
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