“This fighting must not continue because its repercussions are bad – for the dear Palestinian people (and) Lebanon,” Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah said.
The head of powerful armed group, Hezbollah, called on Tuesday for a halt to days of deadly clashes that have raged between rival factions in the Palestinian camp of Ain Al-Hilweh in southern Lebanon, Reuters reports.
At least 11 people have been killed in the camp since fighting broke out on Saturday between mainstream faction Fatah and Islamic militants, security sources in the camp told Reuters.
Fighting Must Stop
“This fighting must not continue because its repercussions are bad – for the camp’s residents, for the dear Palestinian people … for the south, for all of Lebanon,” Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised address.
The United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said at least 2,000 people have fled their homes in the camp and UNRWA activities were suspended due to the violence.
Negotiations between the rival factions have led to brief suspensions of fighting but have failed to secure a lasting ceasefire, with heavy clashes resuming on Tuesday.
Hezbollah, which controls southern Lebanon and is vehemently opposed to Israel, has ties to Palestinian factions and supports their cause.
Nasrallah, on Tuesday, said anyone who could “pressure, say a word, make contact, make an effort” to secure a truce should do so.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees live in Lebanon’s 12 Palestinian camps, which date back to the Nakba, the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine by Zionist militias.
The camps mainly lie outside the jurisdiction of Lebanese security services.
Quran Burning
Nasrallah also ramped up his language on Tuesday against those burning copies of the Muslim holy book, the Quran, in Denmark and Sweden in recent weeks, saying the weak response from Muslim states had left believers wanting.
“There is no longer any meaning to waiting for anyone. You must take up this responsibility and punish these damned people with the strongest punishment,” Nasrallah said.
Hezbollah is a Lebanese resistance group.
It is credited for driving the Israeli military out of Lebanon in 2000, and for pushing back against attempted Israeli incursions in the Israeli war on Lebanon in 2006.
(MEMO, PC)
