Ain al-Hilweh ceasefire holds as rumors of external involvement swirl

News Desk - The Cradle 

A fragile ceasefire was reached at a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon as speculation about the party responsible for the assassination of a top Fatah security officer continues

Fighting has stopped for now in the Ain al-Hilweh camp in Saida, southern Lebanon, after the implementation of a ceasefire arranged on 1 August under the supervision of the Palestinian Joint Action Committee.

The ceasefire comes after three days of intense fighting, which saw 11 killed and dozens injured in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp, and as speculation continues that external parties are seeking to spark a broader conflict resembling that in the Nahr al-Bared camp over a decade ago.

Speaking of the ceasefire reached Tuesday night, Munir al-Maqdah, a leader in the Fatah movement, confirmed to Al-Mayadeen, "There is an official Lebanese-Palestinian agreement on the importance of a ceasefire, and then following up on the issue of the assassination of the security commander Abu Ashraf al-Armoushi.”

For his part, Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah described how “What’s happening at the Ain al-Hilweh camp is painful because it entails blood, displacement and bad and agonizing repercussions."

“This fighting should not continue because its impact is detrimental to Saida, the neighboring areas, the South, and all of Lebanon,” Nasrallah added, urging “everyone at the Ain al-Hilweh camp to stop the fighting.”

The fighting began Saturday evening following an assassination attempt on Abu Qatadah, a commander in Jund al-Sham, an extremist armed group based in the camp. On Sunday, top Fatah security official Abu Ashraf al-Armoushi was assassinated along with four of his fellow officers. 

Clashes between Fatah and Jund al-Sham militants in the following days displaced thousands of camp residents. 

In the wake of the violence, efforts to identify the party responsible for the assassination of Armoushi continue. Al-Mayadeen quoted a Palestinian source claiming Armoushi was assassinated by a militant named Bilal Badr, a leader of the Muslim Youth group who has links to Jund al-Sham and other Islamic forces in the camp. Badr’s supporters engaged in clashes with Fatah when similar fighting broke out in Ain al-Hilweh in 2017.

Since that time, Badr has been wanted for the assassination of officials of the Palestinian factions, attacks on Lebanese army centers in Saida, the preparation of explosive devices, and communication with extremist groups in Syria, such as the Nusra Front and ISIS.

Speculation is also rife that parties outside Lebanon are responsible for Armoush’s assassination but wish to blame Jund al-Sham to incite a major battle in Ain al-Hilweh similar to that which destroyed the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian camp in 2007. 

Fatah head Maqdah told Al-Mayadeen, "there is an attack on the Palestinian camps and the refugee issue," saying that "whoever shoots may be a hired gun from abroad." 

Al-Mayadeen also quoted a source in the Fatah movement as suggesting the assassination of Armoushi was not a spontaneous response to the attack on Jund al-Sham’s Abu Qatadah but rather a pre-planned operation. The source claimed that "the decision to assassinate Armoushi was taken a while ago" and that "stabilizing the ceasefire depends on the handing over of the parties that carried out the assassination."

Others have pointed to the deliberate targeting of Lebanese army positions outside the camp, suggesting this is a deliberate attempt by external forces to draw the army, which usually does not enter the Palestinian camps, into a broader conflict. 

This speculation focuses on the head of the Palestinian Authority's Intelligence Service, Majed Faraj, who visited Lebanon a week before the outbreak of events in the Ain al-Hilweh. During the visit, Faraj proposed the Lebanese government disarm Palestinian armed groups in and around the camps.

Faraj is known for having good relations with the US and Israel. In a rare media interview, he boasted about security coordination with Israel in the occupied West Bank and that his forces had stopped attacks against Israeli targets. 

Al-Akhbar newspaper suggested Faraj wanted the Fatah movement to limit the activities of the Palestinian resistance groups, and he came to Lebanon with the coordination of the US and Israel, intending to make a deal with Beirut.

In reference to efforts to disarm the Palestinian camps in Lebanon, Fatah leader Maqdah told Al-Mayadeen that "all issues are being raised under the table, but the issue of the camps' weapons is among the conditions no one can bring up."