Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Monday phoned a Hamas representative in Lebanon to check in on refugees in Mieh Mieh camp, a day after clashes between Palestinians killed nine.
Haniyeh offered his condolences to families of the victims of the clashes and wished the injured a speedy recovery, a statement said Tuesday.
The leader urged all Palestinian factions in Lebanon to avoid further inter-Palestinian disputes, and never to allow disputes to escalate into violent clashes.
Nine Palestinians were killed Monday in clashes between two armed groups in the Palestinian refugee camp based in southern Lebanon.
A Palestinian source in the camp said the groups involved in the clashes were not officially affiliated with any major faction.
He named them as the Ansar Allah group, led by a former member of President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement, and the Shuhada al-Awda group, whose leader is close to another former Fatah member, Mohammed Dahlan.
A Palestinian official said Shuhada al-Awda's leader and two of his brothers were among those killed. Another three fighters from the group also died, as well as two gunmen from Ansar Allah.
A Palestinian working for an emergency association was killed while trying to transport one of the more than 20 people wounded in the fighting.
A Fatah official for southern Lebanon said the dispute between the groups began several weeks ago as a personal disagreement between their members.
He said the clashes had stopped and efforts were under way to restore calm in the camp.
More than 400,000 Palestinians, mainly descendants of refugees from the 1948 war that attended the creation of Israel, live in camps throughout Lebanon.
Under a long-standing agreement, Lebanese security forces do not enter the camps, where armed Palestinian groups regularly clash with each other.
Al Bawaba
Via SyndiGate.info
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