BEIRUT - Some Lebanese and Palestinian figures expressed their fear from the aggravation of the situation in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el Helwe in the suburbs of Saida (South). This camp witnessed confrontations and explosions recently between the Fatah movement and fundamentalist Muslim factions.

The Minister of Education MP Bahiyya Hariri said in a meeting with a delegation from the PLO, “a huge scenario is being prepared to Ain el Helwe refugee camp, which would be a source of dislodgement, and we do not want this to happen to you”.

In a statement published by the national official press agency, Berri expressed her “satisfaction from the measures and initiatives the Palestinians started to take in the camp”, noting that she “assures the inhabitants of Saida and Lebanon, because they are worried about the respective events that occurred”.

Ain el Helwe refugee camp, which is the biggest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, have witnessed lately, and especially last September, many confrontations between the Fatah movement and the Jund el Sham fundamentalist extremist group.

At the end of the confrontations which erupted on September 23, one man was killed by a bomb at the entrance of a mosque, and 3 persons were killed as well in confrontations that erupted on September 16.

For his part, MP Oussama Saad said that "targeting Ain al-Hilweh threatens the security of Saida, Lebanon and the Palestinians."
He hoped that “these incidents end for good” and said that “the arms are terrorizing the Palestinians and the arms chaos is starting to worry them”.

On the other hand, the assistant PLO representative in Lebanon, Kamal Naji, said “we want this camp to be calm and we don’t want a new ‘Nahr el Bared’ battle”, referring to Nahr el Bared Palestinian refugees in North Lebanon.

This camp witnessed violent confrontations between the Lebanese Army and the Islamic movement Fatah al Islam which lasted for three months leading to the death of more than 400 people, including 168 Lebanese soldiers, and to the destruction of the camp.

Naji, who presides a committee that includes the Palestinian factions and controls the situation through security forces, insisted on “the coordination with the Lebanese state and Army” which is deploying at the entries of the camps, and not inside them.

“Now, there are practical steps: I formed an operation room and a security force is under formation”, he said.