Report: Fatah Members Receiving Military Training in Tyre Camp
Hundreds of Fatah Movement fighters are receiving military teachings and combat lessons in the Palestinian refugee camp of al-Rashidieh in the southern town of Tyre, An Nahar daily reported on Monday.
“The activity which has been going on for a year now, is carried out with the cognition of the Lebanese Security Forces. The matter was thoroughly discussed during the recent visit of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to Beirut in February, through Palestinian Authority security chief Majid Faraj who spoke at length in that regard with General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim and senior army intelligence officers,” added the daily.
“The development in the Lebanese-Palestinian relations are much welcomed by Fatah,” said the daily. “According to Palestinian leaders, it would support the Palestinians' position mainly in the fragile Ain el-Hilweh refugee camp and maintain safe security situation --that was highly emphasized by Abbas during his meetings with Lebanese officials.”
According to Palestinian sources, “some parties are still trying to perturb the latest visit of Abbas in a bid to prevent Fatah Movement from showing a leading position in the Palestinian file. But its opponents do not expect the Fatah “project” to succeed over internal differences between a large number of its leaders and a series of contradictions despite the attention it receives from Lebanese authorities,” according to the daily.
Late in February, heavy clashes rocked Ain el-Hilweh for six consecutive days leaving one civilian killed and four wounded.
The fighting near Lebanon's southern port city of Sidon has pitted members of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah movement against hardline Islamist groups.
Intermittent fighting first broke out after Fatah pulled out of a joint committee that maintained security in Ain el-Hilweh, but the violence later intensified.
Palestinian factions meeting at their embassy in Beirut later announced that they had agreed on a ceasefire to end the fighting.
By long-standing convention, Lebanon's army does not enter Palestinian refugee camps, where security is managed by joint committees of Palestinian factions.
In recent years, tensions have risen between Fatah and the Jund al-Sham Islamist group in the camp.
Source: Agence France Presse, Naharnet
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