Despite reports of ceasefire, death toll in clashes in Palestinian camp in Lebanon rises

At least six people have been killed and dozens wounded in clashes in a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon, first responders say, as fighting rages for a fifth day.

Violence broke out late Thursday in the Ain al-Helweh camp on the outskirts of the coastal city of Sidon, just weeks after similar clashes pitted members of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement against Islamist militants.

The toll has risen to at least “six dead, one of them killed on Monday, and more than 60 wounded,” says Imad Hallak from the Palestinian Red Crescent’s Lebanon branch. The casualties include both fighters and civilians, he adds.

An AFP correspondent in Sidon reports ongoing clashes with automatic gunfire and shelling, after fighting had subsided somewhat overnight.

Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) says the city’s southern entrance is closed to traffic. The NNA had reported Saturday that three fighters and one civilian had been killed.