RAMALLAH, Mar. 30 (JMCC) - Tensions have risen dramatically in the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon over power struggles in the security service.
Palestinian Authority President
Mahmoud Abbas had ordered the top commander responsible for security in the camps to step down and be replaced.
Brig. Munir al-Maqdah, who is based in the
Ein el-Hilwah camp in southern Lebanon, has defied orders, a move which could further divide the already weakened
Fateh authority in the country.
Abbas warned earlier this month that Ein al-Hilweh, the largest and most volatile of the 12 camps in Lebanon, might explode at any time because of intra-Palestinian feuding.
Other Palestinian officials say Islamist groups are gaining strength and growing bolder in challenging the supremacy of Fatah, the mainstream Palestinian movement headed by Abbas.
But the complex and increasingly volatile situation within the camps, and particularly in Ein al-Hilweh, in the southern port city of Sidon, is being complicated further by Iranian and Syrian intrigues and the threat of a new conflict with Israel...
As the camps have become infiltrated by extremist groups and ideologies over the last five years, authorities have discussed cooperation between Palestinian and Lebanese security agencies to control the camps.
A senior Fateh official was in Lebanon on Monday to deliver an approval from Abbas to form a bi-national force, according to al-Quds newspaper.
Read the full article at
United Press International...