Ain al-Helweh Ceasefires: A Cycle of Escalation and Trust Erosion

When each ceasefire agreement in the Ain al-Helweh refugee camp collapses, the subsequent rounds of battles are fiercer than their predecessors. 

Tuesday night saw intense clashes in the camp that lasted for hours, during which extremist forces fired more than 30 mortar shells at the Burj al-Barajneh area, a stronghold of Fatah. 

For the first time, they launched a 107 rocket with a range of up to 8 kilometers, threatening Sidon and its surroundings if it did not hit its target. The clashes even reached the Sidon highway, causing a new wave of displacement.

Security in Sidon and its surroundings prompted intervention from the Speaker of the Parliament, Nabih Berri, who led negotiations that resulted in a ceasefire starting from 6 p.m. on Wednesday.

Lebanese security sources spoke of a trust crisis between the warring parties on the ground, and every ceasefire fails, compounded by the Palestinian leadership's failure to bridge the differences between the two sides.

One aspect of the previous agreement's failure was killing the military commander of Al-Linnou and his nephew, Khaled Abou Nahaaj, and another individual, Mohammed Bilal Ouweid.
 
Eyewitnesses say the killers were members of Fatah who attempted to advance but were prevented due to the exclusion of the Safouri area, belonging to Al-Linnou, from the clashes. 

Fatah, in turn, accuses Muslim youth of this.

However, despite this, accusations and counter-accusations persist. 

Observers say that Fatah initiates the attacks each time to maintain the battlefield balance. At the same time, Fatah accuses the extremist groups of violating the agreements with the support of Hamas at all levels.

Hamas, for its part, acknowledges the existence of lawless elements that must be handed over, but its criticism of Fatah lies in how it deals with this matter, which has led and continues to lead to the camp's explosions.