2 dead in Lebanon Palestinian refugee camp shooting

Attack is latest violent incident in Ein el-Hilweh linked to extremist Jund al-Sham group

By Bassam Mroue 29 July 2015, 12:50 am

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Masked Palestinian Fatah fighters from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades parade during a rally marking the 46th anniversary of the movement's creation, in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ein el-Hilweh, near the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, December 31, 2010. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari/File)

BEIRUT (AP) — Palestinian officials say a shooting in a refugee camp in southern Lebanon has killed two people and wounded three.

Tuesday’s shooting in the Ein el-Hilweh camp, near the port city of Sidon, comes three days after an official from Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party — Talal Baladneh, who was also known as Talal the Jordanian — was ambushed and killed in a hail of gunfire near the camp.

The Palestinian officials say one of the killed men was a member of the extremist Jund al-Sham group while the other belonged to Fatah. The wounded included two civilians and a Jund al-Sham member. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.

Shootings are common in Ein el-Hilweh, Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp and a haven for militants and fugitives.