The
toll in two days of clashes in the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee
camp in Lebanon rose to five on Sunday, medics said, as local factions
worked to implement a security plan. Clashes erupted in the camp
late Friday as Palestinian factions participating in a joint security
force began deploying throughout the area in the southern city of Sidon. They
came under fire from a local Islamic extremist group in part of the
camp, prompting clashes that Lebanese and Palestinian medics said Sunday
have now killed five people and wounded at least 30, mostly civilians. The
dead were two civilians, two members of the joint Palestinian security
force and one member of the extremist group, the medical sources said. The
fighting has prompted security measures outside the camp, which
Lebanese security forces do not enter by long-standing agreement. An adjacent highway has been cut and patients moved from the Sidon government hospital next to the camp.

Palestinian
officials in the camp called Sunday on remaining members of a group led
by a local extremist to surrender with their weapons. Around noon, the intensity of the clashes decreased after earlier fighting that sent clouds of black smoke up from the camp. Ain
al-Hilweh is home to several armed factions and has been plagued by
intermittent clashes between them as well as against smaller extremist
groups. Lebanon’s army does not enter Palestinian refugee camps, where security is managed by joint committees of Palestinian factions. Ain al-Hilweh is home to some 61,000 Palestinians, including 6,000 who have fled the war in Syria.