Ceasefire declared after days of intense fighting in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp

Ashraf Dabbour, Palestinian ambassador to Lebanon, meets Gen. Joseph Aoun, commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces. (Supplied)
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Updated 11 September 2023
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Ceasefire declared after days of intense fighting in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp

  • Earlier, 8 people were killed and 128 injured on Monday in the fifth day of clashes between rival factions at the Ain Al-Hilweh camp
  • One of those who died was identified as Ezzeddine Daoud, a suspect in the killing of Abu Ashraf Al-Armoushi, a Fatah military general, at the camp in July

BEIRUT: Following days of fighting in Lebanon’s largest camp for Palestinian refugees, which left several people dead and dozens wounded, a ceasefire was declared on Monday.

It followed a meeting between Brig. Gen. Elias Al-Baysari, Lebanon’s acting general security chief, and representatives of the Joint Palestinian Action Committee, which includes members of rival Palestinian factions and the Hamas movement, Lebanon’s General Security Directorate said.

Al-Baysari pledged that Lebanese authorities “will not stand idle in the face of what is happening in the Ain Al-Hilweh camp, as it is subject to the Lebanese sovereignty.”

He added: “What’s happening is very dangerous and if the fighting continues it will turn into a draining crisis. The situation in Lebanon cannot handle additional crises.

“The issue of turning in the wanted members who are suspected of assassinating (Abu Ashraf) Al-Armoushi (a Fatah military general) is the responsibility of the Lebanese state, as it is the one that sets the deadline and acts if they are not handed over.”

Al-Armoushi and four of his bodyguards were killed in an ambush at the camp in July.

Al-Baysari said extremist groups “don’t have the right to disturb the security of the camp, of (the city of) Saida and of the surrounding area, turning the place into a refuge for terrorists and (Daesh) members of all nationalities. The Fatah Movement doesn’t have the right to replace the state.”

Also on Monday, Ashraf Dabbour, the Palestinian ambassador to Lebanon, met Gen. Joseph Aoun, the commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces. Fathi Abou Al-Aradat, secretary of Fatah, was also at the meeting. The participants discussed the latest developments at the camp, Palestinian embassy officials said.

Azzam Al-Ahmad, a member of Fatah’s central committee and general supervisor of Palestinian affairs in Lebanon, was expected to arrive in Beirut on Monday night.

Earlier on Monday, there were clashes at Ain Al-Hilweh for a fifth day between Fatah militants and members of extremist groups, during which eight people were killed. In addition, 128 were injured, including six Lebanese Army soldiers. The dead included four Fatah militants, two members of extremist groups, a Lebanese civilian and a Palestinian civilian.

One of the extremists who died was identified as Ezzeddine Daoud, one of the suspects wanted in connection with the killing of Al-Armoushi. He was taken to Al-Raee Hospital in Saida, where army intelligence was waiting to arrest him, but he died of a head injury.

Meanwhile, rival factions in Ain Al-Hilweh denied targeting a Lebanese army base near the entrance to the camp on Sunday night. Lebanese military officials said three rockets hit two military sites near the camp, injuring five soldiers, one of whom remains in a serious condition.

Palestine Liberation Organization representatives in Lebanon condemned the targeting of Lebanese forces at Ain Al-Hilweh. They described it as “a suspicious act that affects the Palestinian national cause and serves the enemies of the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples.”

The Coalition of Palestinian Forces in Lebanon also denounced the targeting of the army bases as “a suspicious act with dangerous implications.”

The Hamas press office in Lebanon denied reports that the movement, along with Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah, “were backing the armed groups in the Ain Al-Hilweh camp in order to take over the Palestinian decision in the Palestinian camps in Lebanon.”

It said Hamas “works with all the Palestinian and Lebanese factions and forces, in addition to the Lebanese security apparatuses and the Palestinian ambassador to Lebanon, to secure a ceasefire and preserve the camp, its residents and the neighboring Lebanese areas.”

It added: “We will continue our efforts with all loyal sides to ensure security and stability inside the camp.”


US strike on Yemen fuel port kills at least 58, Houthi media say

Updated 6 sec ago
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US strike on Yemen fuel port kills at least 58, Houthi media say

  • The US has vowed not to halt the large-scale strikes begun last month, unless the Houthis cease attacks on Red Sea shipping

WASHINGTON: US strikes on a fuel port in Yemen killed at least 58 people, Houthi-run Al Masirah TV said, one of the deadliest since the United States began its attacks on the Iran-backed militants.

The United States has vowed not to halt the large-scale strikes begun last month in its biggest military operation in the Middle East since President Donald Trump took office in January, unless the Houthis cease attacks on Red Sea shipping.

Al Masirah TV said 126 people were also wounded in Thursday’s strikes on the western fuel port of Ras Isa, which the US military said aimed to cut off a source of fuel for the Houthi militant group.

Responding to a Reuters query for comment on the Houthis’ casualty figure and its own estimate, the US Central Command said it had none beyond the initial announcement of the attacks.

“The objective of these strikes was to degrade the economic source of power of the Houthis, who continue to exploit and bring great pain upon their fellow countrymen,” it had said in a post on X.

Since November 2023, the Houthis have launched dozens of drone and missile attacks on vessels transiting the waterway, saying they were targeting ships linked to Israel in protest over the war in Gaza.

They halted attacks on shipping lanes during a two-month ceasefire in Gaza. Although they vowed to resume strikes after Israel renewed its assault on Gaza last month, they have not claimed any since.

In March, two days of US attacks killed more than 50 people, Houthi officials said.


Lebanon says one killed in a renewed Israeli strike near Sidon

Updated 2 min 17 sec ago
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Lebanon says one killed in a renewed Israeli strike near Sidon

  • Israel has continued to carry out near-daily strikes in Lebanon

Beirut: Lebanon’s health ministry said an Israeli strike on Friday hit a vehicle near the southern coastal city of Sidon, killing one person.
Despite a November 27 ceasefire that sought to halt more than a year of conflict — including two months of all-out war — between Israel and Hezbollah, Israel has continued to carry out near-daily strikes in Lebanon.
“The attack carried out by the Israeli enemy against a car on the Sidon-Ghaziyeh road resulted in one dead,” said a health ministry statement on the fourth consecutive day of Israeli attacks on the south where Israel says it has targeted Hezbollah militants.
An AFP journalist said the Israeli attack hit a four-wheel-drive vehicle, sending a pillar of black smoke into the sky.
The Lebanese army sealed off the area as firemen fought the blaze.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the strike, but the Israeli military has said it was behind previous attacks this week that it said killed members of the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement.
Hezbollah, significantly weakened by the war, insists it is adhering to the November ceasefire, even as Israeli attacks persist.

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50 years on, Lebanon remains hostage to sectarian rivalries
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Gaza rescuers say 15 killed in Israeli strikes

Updated 7 min 55 sec ago
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Gaza rescuers say 15 killed in Israeli strikes

  • On Thursday the civil defense agency reported the deaths of at least 40 residents in Israeli strikes

GAZA CITY: Gaza’s civil defense agency said Friday that 15 people, including 10 from the same family, had been killed in two overnight Israeli strikes.
Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said on Telegram that “our crews recovered the bodies of 10 martyrs and a large number of wounded from the house of the Baraka family and the neighboring houses targeted by the Israeli occupation forces in the Bani Suhaila area east of Khan Yunis,” in the southern Gaza Strip.
Bassal later announced that a separate strike hit two houses in northern Gaza’s Tal Al-Zaatar, where crews had “recovered the bodies of five people.”
The Israeli military, which did not immediately comment, has intensified its aerial bombardments and expanded its ground operations in the Gaza Strip since it resumed its offensive in the besieged Palestinian territory on March 18.
On Thursday, the civil defense agency reported the deaths of at least 40 residents in Israeli strikes, most of them in camps for displaced civilians, as Israel pressed its offensive.


Israeli military intercepts missile launched from Yemen

Updated 18 April 2025
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Israeli military intercepts missile launched from Yemen

  • Iran-backed Houthi militia have regularly fired missiles and drones targeting Israel

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military said Friday it had intercepted a missile launched from Yemen, from where the Iran-backed Houthi militia have regularly fired missiles and drones targeting Israel.
“Following the sirens that sounded a short while ago in several areas in Israel, a missile launched from Yemen was intercepted,” Israel’s army said on Telegram, adding that aerial defense systems had been deployed “to intercept the threat.”


Cash crunch leaves Syrians queueing for hours to collect salaries

Updated 18 April 2025
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Cash crunch leaves Syrians queueing for hours to collect salaries

  • Syria has been struggling to emerge from the wake of nearly 14 years of civil war, and its banking sector is no exception
  • The liquidity crisis has forced authorities to drastically limit cash withdrawals, leaving much of the population struggling to make ends meet

DAMASCUS: Seated on the pavement outside a bank in central Damascus, Abu Fares’s face is worn with exhaustion as he waits to collect a small portion of his pension.
“I’ve been here for four hours and I haven’t so much as touched my pension,” said the 77-year-old, who did not wish to give his full name.
“The cash dispensers are under-stocked and the queues are long,” he continued.
Since the overthrow of president Bashar Assad last December, Syria has been struggling to emerge from the wake of nearly 14 years of civil war, and its banking sector is no exception.
Decades of punishing sanctions imposed on the Assad dynasty – which the new authorities are seeking to have lifted – have left about 90 percent of Syrians under the poverty line, according to the United Nations.
The liquidity crisis has forced authorities to drastically limit cash withdrawals, leaving much of the population struggling to make ends meet.
Prior to his ousting, Assad’s key ally Russia held a monopoly on printing banknotes. The new authorities have only announced once that they have received a shipment of banknotes from Moscow since Assad’s overthrow.
In a country with about 1.25 million public sector employees, civil servants must queue at one of two state banks or affiliated ATMs to make withdrawals, capped at about 200,000 Syrian pounds, the equivalent on the black market of $20 per day.
In some cases, they have to take a day off just to wait for the cash.
“There are sick people, elderly... we can’t continue like this,” said Abu Fares.
“There is a clear lack of cash, and for that reason we deactivate the ATMs at the end of the workday,” an employee at a private bank said, preferring not to give her name.
A haphazard queue of about 300 people stretches outside the Commercial Bank of Syria. Some are sitting on the ground.
Afraa Jumaa, a civil servant, said she spends most of the money she withdraws on the travel fare to get to and from the bank.
“The conditions are difficult and we need to withdraw our salaries as quickly as possible,” said the 43-year-old.
“It’s not acceptable that we have to spend days to withdraw meagre sums.”
The local currency has plunged in value since the civil war erupted in 2011, prior to which the dollar was valued at 50 pounds.
Economist Georges Khouzam explained that foreign exchange vendors – whose work was outlawed under Assad – “deliberately reduced cash flows in Syrian pounds to provoke rapid fluctuations in the market and turn a profit.”
Muntaha Abbas, a 37-year-old civil servant, had to return three times to withdraw her entire salary of 500,000 pounds.
“There are a lot of ATMs in Damascus, but very few of them work,” she said.
After a five-hour wait, she was finally able to withdraw 200,000 pounds.
“Queues and more queues... our lives have become a series of queues,” she lamented.