The fighting between Fatah and Islamists in the camp, which erupted overnight and subsided by the evening, killed a Fatah military leader and four of his colleagues, the secularist movement said.
A Palestinian source inside the camp, speaking on condition of anonymity, said an “Islamist from the al-Shabab al-Muslim group” was also killed and six others including the group’s leader were wounded.
Lebanon’s official news agency NNA gave a “provisional toll” of six dead and more than 30 wounded at Ain al-Helweh, the largest of the 12 Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon located just southeast of the coastal city of Sidon.
NNA reported that stray bullets also damaged homes outside the camp.
Fatah in a statement confirmed the death of commander Ashraf al-Armouchi and four of his “comrades” during a “heinous operation”.
The statement denounced an “abominable and cowardly crime” aimed at undermining the “security and stability” of the Palestinian camps in Lebanon.
A Lebanese soldier was also wounded, hit by shrapnel from “a mortar shell that fell in one of the military posts”, the army said on Twitter, which is being rebranded as X.
His condition was reported as stable.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati in a statement called the timing of the clashes “suspicious in the current regional and international context”.
Mikati criticised “repeated attempts to use Lebanon” as a battleground for the settling of outside scores “at the expense of Lebanon and the Lebanese”.
“We urge the Palestinian leadership to cooperate with the army to control the security situation and deliver to the Lebanese authorities those who compromise it,” his statement added.
