Tensions rise in Palestinian camps in southern Lebanon

Mar 31, 2009, 9:20 GMT

Beirut - Tensions rose Tuesday in Palestinian refugee camps in southern Lebanon after a series of bomb explosions in the past few days, which left no casualties but caused fear among the camps' residents.

At dawn Tuesday a bomb exploded near the house of Fatah member Monther Bhaiji, in the Ain el-Hilweh camp, east of the southern port of Sidon, but no casualties were reported.

Earlier, a stun grenade was thrown by unidentified people inside the Rashidiyeh refugee camp on the outskirts of the port city of Tyre. There were no injuries.

On Monday, an explosion damaged the house of Fatah member Salah Joumaa. The attack was followed by a brief shootout, but patrols were conducted in the camp in order to prevent any further escalation.

The attacks come a week after a high-ranking Fatah official was killed in a blast at the entrance to the Miyeh Miyeh camp in southern Lebanon.

Kamal Medhat, an aide to Palestinian Ambassador and Palestinian Liberation Organization representative in Lebanon Abbas Zaki and Fatah's former intelligence chief in Lebanon, was killed along with three of his bodyguards in a bomb attack on his convoy on March 23.

'People are for sure afraid,' said General Fathi Zeidan, the senior Fatah officer in the Miyeh Miyeh refugee camp, east of the port city of Sidon.

All 12 Palestinian refugee camps across Lebanon are controlled by Palestinian factions rather than Lebanese authorities. There are some 367,000 Palestinians living in the camps.

Khalil Makkawi, president of the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee, echoed General Zeidan's concerns and said 'it is a very tense situation inside the camp and the Palestinian leaders are trying to contain the situation.'

Worries about violent factional splits in Palestinian camps in Lebanon were brought to the fore in February by the International Crisis Group's report.

The report described the Palestinian 'camps that harbor a marginalized, impoverished population; an abundance of weapons; and a leadership that, no longer in a position to fight Israel, is adrift, without a sense of purpose.'

Since the conflict between Fatah al-Islam, a Sunni fundamanetalist Palestinian group and the Lebanese army in the Nahr al-Bared camp in 2007 in northern Lebanon, Beirut has watched the camps uneasily for more signs of violence.