UN: Militants are still occupying school in Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon

A man walks past closed shops in the aftermath of clashes between the Fatah movement and Islamists inside the Ein el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in the southern coastal city of Sidon on August 1, 2023. (Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP)
A man walks past closed shops in the aftermath of clashes between the Fatah movement and Islamists inside the Ein el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp in the southern coastal city of Sidon on August 1, 2023. (Mahmoud ZAYYAT / AFP)

BEIRUT — Two weeks after clashes between armed factions in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp ended, militants are still occupying a United Nations-run school complex, UN officials say.

Dorothee Klaus, director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, in Lebanon, says in a statement that the agency has “received alarming reports that armed actors continue to occupy its installations including a school compound” in the Ein el-Hilweh camp.

Klaus says the continued presence of militants is a “grave violation of the inviolability of UN premises under international law, which compromises the neutrality of UNRWA installations and undermines the safety and security of our staff” and of the refugees living in the camp.

A local Palestinian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, says militants from both of the opposing sides have taken over different schools, using them as a “safe haven,” and have looted computers and equipment.

The fighting killed at least 13 people, injured dozens more and caused millions of dollars of damage in the camp, according to UNRWA officials.

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