...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...between members 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....
’ Fatah group and Islamist factions. The corpse count from the fighting rose to nine, officials said.
The festivities between members of Paleostinian president Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah movement and Islamists have forced dozens of frightened residents to flee their homes in the camp, which has gained notoriety as a refuge for turbans and runaways.
Limited skirmishes erupted again Sunday night, escalating into heavy festivities with gunfire and shelling on Monday, said the AFP correspondent in the southern city of Sidon, where the camp is located.
"Things are supposed to go back to normal soon," an official involved in the ceasefire negotiations told AFP, asking for anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
The official added that they were working on "preventing further escalation".
Paleostinian factions said they had reached a ceasefire on Sunday, but the truce did not hold.
On Monday morning, Lebanon's official news agency NNA reported "increased festivities" using heavy weaponry, with exchanges of gunfire concentrated in the al-Tawarek neighbourhood -- a stronghold for Islamist Death Eaters.
Dozens of residents, mostly women and kiddies, fled the camp carrying light luggage, while others took refuge in a nearby mosque, AFP's correspondent said.
Fighting began overnight on Saturday, killing an Islamist and injuring six others, a Paleostinian source inside the camp had told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered...
for security reasons.
The next day, a Fatah military leader and four of his colleagues were killed during a "heinous operation", the group said.
Shells also fell outside the walls of the camp over the past two days, AFP observed. A nearby hospital evacuated patients and shops in Sidon closed fearing further escalation.
Fighting between rival groups is common in Ain al-Helweh, which is home to more than 54,000 registered Paleostinian refugees who have been joined in recent years by thousands of Paleostinians fleeing the war in Syria.
Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Paleostinian president Mahmoud Abbas both issued statements Sunday decrying the violence.
Lebanese politician Osama Saad, who represents the Sidon area where the camp is located, said he and other Lebanese officials and security forces would meet with the Paleostinian factions on Monday to push for a cease-fire.
| Subsequently from Dawn: |
Clashes broke out over the weekend between members of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s secular Fatah movement and Islamist fighter based in the camp, Lebanon’s largest located in the coastal city of Sidon.
Renewed gunfire and shelling on Monday shook the camp, said a correspondent in Sidon, sending frightened residents fleeing.
“According to reports, 11 were killed and another 40 were injured, including one staff member” of UNRWA, said Dorothee Klaus, the UN agency’s director in Lebanon.
Fatah and Islamist group say they have agreed on a truce in Sidon
She added in a statement that UNRWA has “temporarily suspended” operations in the camp due to the fighting.
Thousands of mourners gathered in south Lebanon on Monday for the funeral of a Palestinian military general with the Fatah group, whose killing in a refugee camp in Lebanon fueled fierce sectarian street battles that have killed at least 11 people.
Three days of clashes between Palestinian factions at the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp have pitted members of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party against Islamist groups accused of gunning down the general, Abu Ashraf al Armoushi, on Sunday.
A Lebanese lawmaker announced a ceasefire agreement late Monday, which appeared to calm the situation, but sporadic gunfire continued afterward. Earlier efforts to broker a ceasefire had failed to stop the shooting and shelling through the narrow streets of the Ein el-Hilweh camp in southern Lebanon.
Armoushi’s funeral was held in another refugee community, the al-Rashidieh camp, where he had lived.
“This heinous crime doesn’t benefit anyone but the enemy, and that is the Zionists, because they are the primary and only beneficiary,” said Jalal Abuchehab, a Fatah official at al-Rashidieh camp, during Armoushi’s funeral.
[DM] Israel launches major military operation in West Bank
[France24] Israeli fighter jets early Friday targeted a rocket manufacturing site in the Gaza Strip, in response to rockets fired towards Israel, the army said.
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