REPORT: Cautious calm prevails in the Ain el-Helweh refugee camp

Lebanese security sources stressed on Wednesday that the radical groups in Ain el-Helwe refugee camp are behind the assassination of  a Fatah member, injury another from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and a passer-by as well as the explosion that rocked the camp.

“Oussama Chehaby is the mastermind and Bilal Bader is the one who carried out the operation,” the sources added.

Cautious calm prevailed on Wednesday at the Ain el-Helweh refugee camp with schools and shops closed to denounce the latest events that erupted lately at the camp.       

A bomb exploded on Tuesday at the Ain el-Helweh refugee camp across the road that leads to the Darb el-Sim town in Sidon during the funeral of Mohammad Al-Saadi who was killed on Sunday.                 

The explosion led to the injury of 4 persons and the death of another, the person who planted the bomb.

Sources told LBCI, investigations conducted by the Palestinian authorities showed that the explosion was due to 122mm explosive shell and was detonated remotely which confirms that the aim of the crime was to provoke the larger number of casualties.

In this context, Palestinian factions, national Palestinian and Islamic forces confirmed in a meeting in the headquarters of the Palestinian National Security Forces in Ain el-Hilweh that they refused to push the camp and its vicinity in any conflict. They expressed their readiness for any common collective action aimed end to similar tragic events, saying they were exerting all efforts to prevent the situation from deteriorating.