Overnight Armed Clashes Erupt in Ain el-Hilweh

Armed clashes erupted overnight between the Palestinian Fatah Movement and the Bilal Badr armed group in the Ain el-Hilweh refugee camp near the southern city of Sidon. The sound of intermittent gunfire resonated until morning, the National News Agency reported Wednesday.

NNA said the clash erupted at midnight when two suspects on a motorcycle drove beside a Fatah position in the al-Fawqani neighborhood and started shooting gunfire into the air drawing suspicion of a Fatah Movement security member.

The incident triggered crossfire between the two factions, using machine guns and RPGs; damages were strictly material.

Extensive contacts were held immediately between Palestinian factions, particularly between Usbat al-Ansar and the Islamic Mujahid Movements, to pacify the situation and withdraw the gunmen.

Intermittent gunfire could still be heard until the morning.

The UNRWA schools and institutions were closed on Wednesday.

Ain el-Hilweh, the largest Palestinian camp in the country, is home to about 50,000 refugees and is known to harbor extremists and fugitives.

By long-standing convention, the Lebanese army does not enter the country's 12 refugee camps, leaving security inside to the Palestinians themselves.