Calm restored at Lebanon refugee camp after clash
17 February 2010
SIDON, Lebanon,The situation was calm on Tuesday at a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon following clashes between rival factions that left a woman dead, officials said.
"Everything is back to normal today and the residents who had fled the fighting are back," Munir Maqdah, who is in charge of security at the Ain al-Hilweh camp near the coastal city of Sidon, told AFP.
The clashes broke out on Monday after members of the small Islamist movement Usbat al-Ansar fired at a member of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's mainstream Fatah faction.
An army spokesman reported that the Fatah member had been killed but Maqdah and hospital officials said on Tuesday that he had been wounded.
The woman who was killed was caught in the crossfire. Five other people were also wounded, Maqdah said.
By longstanding convention, the Lebanese army does not enter the camps, leaving security inside in the hands of Palestinians.
Ain al-Hilweh, the largest of Lebanon's 12 Palestinian camps, is home to about 50,000 refugees and is known to harbour extremists and fugitives.
