STORY: Over 20 injured in Palestinian refugee camp clashes in Lebanon
DATELINE: Sept. 9, 2023
LENGTH: 00:03:48
LOCATION: Beirut
CATEGORY: MILITARY/SOCIETY

SHOTLIST:
1. various of Ain Al-Helweh refugee camp
2. various of local residents and smoke above the camp
3. SOUNDBITE (Arabic): FOUAD OSMAN, Official with the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine

STORYLINE:

After about a month of calm, armed clashes broke out in the Ain Al-Helweh Refugee Camp in Lebanon Thursday evening after Islamic militants carried out a surprise attack on the Fatah Movement centers, resulting in over 20 people injured until Friday evening.

Lebanese and Palestinian officials were engaged in talks trying to achieve a ceasefire which was agreed upon as of 19:00 on Friday local time.

Fouad Osman, a Palestinian leader of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine said that the joint force that enrolls militants from all the Palestinian factions in Ain Al-Helweh must exercise all its power to reach a ceasefire and apprehend the offenders who are responsible for the clashes.

SOUNDBITE (Arabic): FOUAD OSMAN, Official with the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine
"The clashes do not serve anyone inside the camp or our compatriots or our cause, nor our surroundings, but on the contrary, these clashes hurt us and our people and our cause and destroy all the components of the Palestinian refugees, and our work to preserve our national identity, and offend the resistance in Palestine facing the Israeli occupation. 
However, there are crimes committed inside the camp and those who commit these crimes must be punished, so those crimes would not be repeated, but the offenders remain unpunished. Therefore, the joint force must be strengthened by the national and Islamic forces who agreed unanimously that anyone who represents a threat to the security of the camp must be punished, whoever he might be. There is no cover for any offender, and the joint force is responsible in achieving these steps and arrest any offender and refer him to the Lebanese judiciary, so he would be an example for all others, so as to restore the security inside the camp. People inside the camp are suffering now from the economic situation, so how their situation would be if their houses are destroyed. The clashes left severe destruction and no refugee is capable of paying for the reconstruction of his house. That is why those clashes should end and those responsible for it should be held accountable."

Clashes between rival groups often occur in the Ain Al-Helweh camp, Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp.
   
Between July 29 and Aug. 3, clashes between the two groups in the camp killed at least 13 people and injured dozens of others.

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Beirut.
(XHTV)