Lebanon clashes kill six in Palestinian refugee camp

SIDON, Lebanon: At least six people were killed on Sunday in clashes in south Lebanon´s restive Ain al-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp, said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas´s Fatah movement and a source at the camp.

The fighting between Fatah and Islamists in the camp, which erupted overnight, killed a Fatah military leader and four of his colleagues, the secularist movement said.

A Palestinian source inside the camp, speaking on condition of anonymity, said an “Islamist from the al-Shabab al-Muslim group” was also killed and six others including the group´s leader were wounded.

An AFP journalist said clashes at Ain al-Helweh, the largest of the 12 Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, were still ongoing on Sunday afternoon. Fatah in a statement confirmed the death of commander Ashraf al-Armouchi and four of his “comrades” during a “heinous operation”.

The statement denounced an “abominable and cowardly crime” aimed at undermining the “security and stability” of the Palestinian camps in Lebanon. A Lebanese soldier was also wounded, hit by shrapnel from “a mortar shell that fell in one of the military posts”, the army said on Twitter, which is being rebranded as X.