Fierce clashes in Sidon refugee camp

Four believed dead as radicals and officials do battle

SIDON // Residents fled the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon yesterday as clashes between security forces and radical Islamists intensified for a third day.

Four people are believed to have been killed at the Ein El Hilweh camp in the port city of Sidon since the fighting started.

Fighters armed with assault rifles and lorry-mounted rocket- propelled grenades traded fire in the camp.

Traces of violence spilt beyond its boundaries and Lebanon’s authorities closed the motorway connecting the city to southern Lebanon.

Sidon’s government hospital was struck by a rocket.

Officials from several of the Palestinian factions, including Fatah, ordered the Islamist fighter Bilal Badr and his followers to hand themselves in or face a crackdown. The camp’s radical groups have regularly fallen afoul of Palestinian security forces for hiding fugitives from Lebanese law.

Under an agreement with the Fatah- dominated Palestine Liberation Organisation, Lebanon’s security forces are not authorised to enter the camp.

“We ask God that the situation calms down so that we can return to our homes,” said Ein El Hilweh resident Salah Al Ali, who was taking shelter in Sidon’s Musally mosque. The spokesman for the Council of Palestinian Scholars in Lebanon said the radical groups were issuing fatwas authorising the killing of people they disagreed with.

“This has led to chaos in Ein El Hilweh,” said Sheikh Mohammed Al Muwad.

Palestinians in Lebanon are prohibited from working in professional jobs and have few legal protections. They are also prohibited from owning property.

The United Nations said about 55,000 people lived in the camp, which was established in 1948 to host Palestinians displaced by Israeli forces during the establishment of Israel.