Amal Khalil wrote in “Al-Akhbar”:
The shooting that took place yesterday in Ain al-Hilweh camp in Sidon almost caused the implementation of the plan to deploy the joint Palestinian security force in the UNRWA school complex to be halted, and the militants to withdraw from it. At dawn, the camp woke up to the sound of bullets in the vegetable market on Al-Fawqani Street, where a boy was seriously injured in the back and another man. During the investigations, it was found that “two people were the target of the shooting that led to the assassination of the Islamist Mahmoud Mansour,” according to a Palestinian security source. To circumvent the repercussions of the assassination attempt on the deployment and evacuation plan that was determined after Friday prayers, the camp leadership and the “Palestinian National Security Forces” quickly worked to arrest the two suspects. The first was arrested, while the other disappeared from sight.
After an hour delay than the scheduled time, security force members began deploying around two in the afternoon in the school complex at the border of the Taamir and Emergency neighborhoods. Attention focused on the schools occupied by “Muslim youth.” In front of the media lenses, one of the leaders of the rally, Haitham Al-Shaabi, reviewed it. He chose to show his face, while most of his fighters, who called him “my sheikh,” were masked. With an uncovered face, a long beard, and a Sidonian accent, Abu Musab tried to break the previous impression of him. He responded with open arms to questions and prevented any of his fighters from obstructing the movement of photographers between school classes and classrooms. In front of the blue and white buildings riddled with bullets, he spread an air of reassurance, pledging a long truce. “You took enough pictures of us for two years,” Al-Shaabi said, addressing the photographers, while his fighters were taking out their ammunition from the schools they had occupied since the end of the first round of clashes with Fatah at the beginning of last August: hand-made bombs and modified shells connected to electrical wires and cables… All of them were carried by the fighters with them to their strongholds in the emergency and reconstruction areas.
Following the withdrawal of fighters from schools, news spread in Ain al-Hilweh of the escape of wanted persons accused of assassinating Brigadier General al-Fathawi Abu Ashraf al-Armushi. Al-Shaabi and Fatah denied the matter. However, informed sources confirmed to Al-Akhbar that Abu Al-Abd Al-Tarabulsi (who took refuge with Shadi Al-Mawlawi), accompanied by Al-Tarabulsi, Abdullah Shihab Qaddour (son of Abu Hurairah, who was killed in the battle of Nahr Al-Bared with Fatah Al-Islam) and Othman Al-Takriti, had left for Syria. The three northerners “carry ISIS ideology within the Muslim Youth Gathering,” and two of them are accused of assassinating Al-Armushi (Al-Tikriti and Qaddour). Islamists reported that they would publish a video clip of them within hours. Proposals were made by Palestinian and Lebanese parties during the last two clashes to facilitate the departure of wanted Islamists, especially those who are not from Ain al-Hilweh, to defuse tension, as happened previously with Mawlawi, who was in Idlib.
Implementing the most difficult clause in the ceasefire agreement yesterday did not end the consequences of the two recent clashes. On Al-Fawqani Street, Fatah still maintains a number of barriers and barriers blocking the branching road towards the barracks and the government hospital. The Palestinian National Security Forces are expected to remove the barriers in the next two days. As for extraditing wanted persons, Al-Shaabi delayed his speech to the media. He refused to describe the seven wanted persons whom the investigation committee accused of assassinating Al-Armouchi as “murderers,” and said that they were “suspects.” If any of them are proven involved, we will take action against them.”
The clashes between Fatah and the Islamists were paid for only by the people of Ain al-Hilweh. 60% of them are still outside the camp. Some families returned to the so-called “safe neighborhoods,” which the fighting did not reach in the past two rounds, such as Saffuriyya, Al-Zeb, and Arab Al-Ghuwair. These neighborhoods were crowded with displaced people who preferred to stay with relatives or rent cheaper apartments than Sidon apartments. There are those who do not have access to safe neighborhoods or rented housing, who still reside in the shelter centers that UNRWA opened in the Nibals School in Sidon and in the Siblin and Birzeit schools in Iqlim al-Kharroub.
A source in the Hamas movement refused to set a deadline for compensation for those affected. “The priority now is to establish the ceasefire by handing over the wanted persons.” Until then, it is unclear who will pay the compensation. An informed source pointed out that the Director of UNRWA in Beirut, Dorothy Klaus, informed donors of their refusal to donate about 15 million dollars to restore damaged schools and homes, due to fear of renewed battles. Therefore, it is likely that the Palestine Liberation Organization will compensate those affected.
All of this makes the fate of the academic year for six thousand Palestinian students unknown. The camera tour of the schools from which the fighters left yesterday showed the extent of the damage. A hatch penetrates every wall in the classrooms, corridors, sections, and stadiums, created by fighters to move from one room to another. Tiles were snatched from some rows, electrical wires and light bulbs were stolen, as well as office and administrative equipment. Nothing remains to remind us that the damaged buildings belong to eight schools, except for a phrase written on their entrances: “I have the right to learn and to live in peace.”
2023-09-30 03:40:48
#happening #Ain #alHilweh #camp.. #escape #wanted #persons
