The Palestinian Joint Force in the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in South Lebanon completed on Friday afternoon its deployment to schools belonging to UNRWA, the UN agency in charge of Palestinian refugees.

The operation, which ended at around 15:00 (beirut time), saw between 50 and 60 personnel of the Joint Force deploying to the schools. It followed the withdrawal of fighters from rival Fatah and Islamist factions from the schools.

An earlier deployment of the Joint Force in other neighborhoods of the camp took place Monday, in accordance with an agreement aimed at restoring stability to the camp, where two waves of clashes recently left at least 30 people dead.

The latest fighting from Sept. 7-14 pitted the Fatah, close to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, against Islamist groups including Jund al-Sham and Shabab al-Mouslem.

The deployment began at 14:00. A first group of Joint Force fighters headed for the “Ta’amir al-Tawarek” neighborhood, while another went to the Baraksat neighborhood. Islamist and Fateh fighters were entrenched in five of the eight UNRWA schools in the camp.

Source: Agencies