The security tension came in the wake of an incident in which Abu Bassam Al-Maqdah, Secretary General of the Peoples’ Committees in the Sidon region was wounded in the foot after a member of Fatah attacked the headquarters of the Peoples’ Committees in the camp. The assailant identified as Hussein Al-Sayed, brandished his military issue pistol and fired inside the committee’s headquarters, objecting to the arrest of his son charged with theft of a mobile phone. This also led to his son sustaining slight injuries.
In the aftermath, a climate of tension overshadowed the camp. Bursting with refugees - a count of up to 75,000 people, crowded into an area not exceeding two square kilometres.
Al-Maqdah was taken to Al-Nidaa’ Al-Insani hospital in the camp, where medical sources stated that his injury was slight and had not affected the bone. The Fatah movement was quick to condemn the incident, calling it the action of an individual. All the Palestinian factions and powers, Islamic and nationalist, as well as prominent personalities and groups in the camp condemned the incident. They regarded it as unnecessarily creating security tensions and diverting people’s attention from the vital issues, especially in light of the events unfolding rapidly in Occupied Palestine.
Hussein Al-Sayed was later detained by forces belonging to “Al-Kifah Al-Musalah” (Palestinian Armed Struggle). A decision was taken to lift his political immunity while the matter was subjected to investigation as to whether he should be turned over to the Lebanese security forces.
This incident comes in the wake of the fire fight between the Fatah movement and the joint security forces on the one side and Jund Al-Sham on the other side, on Friday 29/7/2004. Soon after, a widened meeting was held in the camp on Sunday 31/7/2004 to study the new security developments. The meeting was attended by the Allied Palestinian Forces, the Islamic forces, peoples’ committees, and representatives of the PLO.
The meeting resulted in the formation of a field oversight committee made up of 11 members, comprising three from the Islamic forces, three from the alliance, three from the PLO factions, a member from “Al-Kifah Al-Musalah”, and a member from “Ansar Allah”. The parties agreed to form an investigating committee, which would summons the appearance of persons responsible for provoking the exchange of fire inside the camp.
Observers look with wariness and unease at the events in Ain Al-Helweh refugee camp, and the need to maintain control over the security situation and not permit their recurrence, especially as in these days eyes are fixed on the internal Palestinian events in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and that the sole beneficiary from the Palestinian-Palestinian infighting, whether inside Palestine or abroad, is the Zionist enemy, who puts this to his service, and the service of his regional and international interests.
Palestinian reconciliation and … the reappearance of masked men in Ain Al-Helweh refugee camp
The joint effort of the Peoples’ Committees, and the Palestinian Nationalist and Islamic factions was successful in securing a recovery in the wake of the security problem that occurred on Saturday 31/7 after the attack on the headquarters of the Peoples’ Committees in Ain Al-Helweh refugee camp by one of the members of Fatah movement, called Hussein Al-Sayed, and injuries sustained by the Secretary General of the Peoples’ Committees in the Sidon area, Abu Bassam Al-Maqdah.
In a gesture of good faith, the family of Al-Maqdah, and to avoid any security escalation which would embroil the people of a single nation in Ain Al-Helweh refugee camp, held a traditional Palestinian meeting of reconciliation at the home of Abu Bassam Al-Maqdah on Monday 2/8, in which many distinguished guests, and notables from the family participated. At their head, the venerable Sheikh Abu Hani Al-Maqdah, chief of the Fatah militia in Lebanon, Colonel Mounir Al-Maqdah, Abu Ahmed Fadl from Hamas, a delegation from Al-Sa’iqa headed by Abu Emad Al-Hassan, and the presence of a delegation from Fatah including Maher Shabaita, in charge of the Ain Al-Helweh branch, and Khaled Al-Shaib, and Muhammad Ali. From the Islamic forces, Sheikh Jamal Khattab, Abu Tareq from Al-Ansar group, Shakeeb Al-‘Aina from Islamic Jihad, Adnan Rifa’i from the Peoples’ Committee, and members from the “Palestinian Oversight Committee”.
Sheikh Abu Hani who was the first to speak, pointed to the pardon of Hussein Al-Sayed, who had shot and wounded Abu Bassam Al-Maqdah, on condition that he not raise his weapon in the face of anyone but the Zionist enemy. Mounir Al-Maqdah added that the Al-Maqdah family “pardoned and forgave from the position of caring for the security and welfare of the camp and its inhabitants, not muddying the issues, and not granting an opportunity for those who gamble on creating security tensions within the camp, because this would present a free service to the Zionist enemy”.
After that Abu Ahmed Fadl spoke of “the challenges faced by the Palestinian people at this critical time, especially in light of the situation in Palestine, and so what is required of us at this time is the highest levels of awareness and caution”. He called for overcoming the pains of the wounds of the moment, and to not give the opportunity to those who were intent on provoking Palestinian infighting.
The chief of “Al-Kifah Al-Musalah” (Palestinian Armed Struggle) in the camp, Colonel Muhammad Ali, gave a speech in which he pointed out that Hussein Al-Sayed had been placed at the disposal of the Al-Maqdeh family, emphasising that what he had done was wrong, and that the pardon and forgiveness shown, would be met by a deterring moral punishment on the part of the Fatah movement, such that he would not repeat this again, because harming others was forbidden, as it only serves as an opportunity to those intent on interfering with the security of the camp”.
At the time when the efforts to bring under control the security problem, had been successful, another new security problem reared its head in Ain Al-Helweh refugee camp. Its features became more apparent in the early hours of 3/8, with talk of the reappearance of masked elements, who would appear in the first hours of daybreak in the alleyways of the camp, and then melt away, with no-one able to identify them.
Information gained told of an incident where a man belonging to Fatah, living in the Barracks refugee complex, neighbouring Ain Al-Helweh refugee camp, had thrown a hand grenade and fired rounds of bullets into the air from his weapon, in the direction of one of the masked men, who had been spotted in the early hours moving between the Barracks complex and Al-Saf-Saf neighbourhood. This provoked a state of fear and terror in the complex, and a security mobilisation in which all the factions in the camp participated, with the intention of containing this phenomenon, through awareness of its seriousness, and seeking to eradicate it.
There is no doubt that the sole beneficiary of this train of security incidents is the Zionist enemy. Especially, as these incidents principally target Ain Al-Helweh refugee camp, the largest of Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, which represents the Palestinian point of reference for the presence of all the different political persuasions, nationalists and Islamists.
With the start of the reappearance of this phenomenon, after it had been stamped out years before, no more is required than to raise the level of awareness and attention to the plots against the Palestinian cause and the scheming taking place in the shadows.
