Palestinians vow to disband Badr group

Palestinian leaders want group leader arrested over fighting in Lebanon’s Ain Al Hilweh refugee camp

Palestinian leaders said yesterday they would break up an armed Islamist group involved in clashes with security forces inside the volatile Ain Al Hilweh refugee camp in southern Lebanon.

At least seven people have been killed since Friday as combatants have exchanged machine gun, rocket and mortar fire in the crowded camp near the coastal city of Sidon.

The situation was calmer yesterday though gunfire could still be heard in the camp, witnesses said.

The battles have pitted a joint security force including the Fatah party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and allied factions against the Sunni Islamist Badr group.

Fighting broke out after the security force sought to deploy throughout the camp and met resistance from the Badr group.

Fatah’s head in Lebanon said the security force would deploy in all areas of the camp with the aim of disbanding the Badr group and arresting its leader, Bilal Badr.

“Wherever the security find him, they must arrest him, present him to justice and hand him over to the Lebanese state,” Fat’hi Abu Al Aradat told a televised press conference in Sidon.

The incident has raised fears of spiralling violence in Ain Al Hilweh, which has seen intermittent clashes in recent months. Lebanon’s Palestinian camps, which date back to the 1948 war between Israel and its Arab neighbours, mainly fall outside the jurisdiction of Lebanese security services.