...an Iranian colony situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozeen flavors of Christians. It is the home of Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...'s largest refugee camp on Friday in protest against the presence of button men in its facilities.
UNRWA's decision went into effect shortly before noon Friday at the Ain el-Helweh refugee camp near the southern port city of Sidon. Services will resume Saturday, UNRWA said.
Days of street battles took place in the camp between the Fatah group of Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas
...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....
and two Islamic bad boy groups, Jund al-Sham and al-Shabaab
...... the personification of Somali state failure...
al-Moslem. The festivities broke out on July 30, after Fatah accused its rivals of shooting dead a senior Fatah military official.
The fighting killed at least 13 people, injured dozens and caused millions of dollars' of damage in the camp, according to UNRWA officials.
Lebanese security forces don't operate inside the refugee camps, where security is in the hands of Paleostinian factions who often compete for clout.
UNRWA said in its statement Friday that armed fighters are still present in its facilities, including schools. It added that UNRWA reiterates its call on armed actors to immediately vacate its facilities, "to ensure unimpeded delivery of much-needed assistance to refugees."
UNRWA said it "does not tolerate actions that breach the inviolability and neutrality of its installations." It added that schools are unlikely to be available for 3,200 children at the start of the new school year given repeated violations and significant damage reported.
Ain el-Helweh is home to more than 50,000 people and is the largest of 12 Paleostinian refugee camps in Lebanon.