For some time now, tension has been mounting between various Palestinian and militant Moslem factions inside the camp and is threatening to explode at any moment. The situation was aggravated by the murder of three soldiers by Badir Hamade, later handed over to Lebanese Army. There was also a brawl between two Palestinians, Mahmoud Hussein Shreydi, 31, and Ahmad Ibrahim Shreydi, 27. For family reasons, Ahmad fired several shots at Mahmoud, seriously injuring him in the abdomen before absconding.
On the following day, Lebanese Islamists wanted by the Government in connection with the killings in the Danniyé region of North Lebanon in January 2000, staged a dawn attack on a Fatah post, killing two and injuring eight. Each of the two factions was trying to consolidate its influence.
While the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the camp's security committee ordered the fundamentalist groups to hand over the Danniyé fugitives, a clandestine Islamic group known as Jamaat an-Nour (Grouping of Light) claimed responsibility for the attack and threatened to cause a bloodbath in Ain al-Hilwé if the Lebanese Islamists sheltering there were handed over to the Lebanese authorities. Declared undesirable by the inhabitants and the leaders of the camp's political/military factions, the Islamists fired anti-tank rockets and salvoes of machine-gun fire at a Fatah checkpoint at an entrance to Ain al-Hilwé, killing and wounding several persons. An exchange of fire with Arafat's men ensued. Mahmoud Mohammed, alias Abou Thabet, a member of the Danniyé group, was killed and two of his companions were injured. Meanwhile, the Army was forming a security cordon around the camp
Sultan Aboul-Aynain, PLO delegate for Lebanon - himself on the run from Lebanese justice - stated that "the Danniyé group "would be uprooted from the camp" and announced a time-limit within which the killers should surrender to the security committee, which would make a decision about their fate. "If they don't", said Aboul-Aynain, "we ourselves will deliver them to the Lebanese authorities". The Fatah leader in the camp, Munir Makdah, said last week that the political factions had decided to expel the four Lebanese militants suspected of having links with the Al-Qaeda network. Makdah added that the men would be guarded by the radical Islamist group Asbat al-Ansar, itself accused of ties with Al-Qaeda, until they were removed from the camp.
PLO officials and pro-Syrian Palestinian organizations announced their determination to deliver the Danniyé fugitives to the Lebanese authorities, "since there's no longer any question of letting the camp be a refuge for criminals." They also accused the assailants of "carrying out a criminal plan for the benefit of Israel aimed at dividing Palestinian ranks and drawing Syria into marginal battles in order to harm the Intifada".
However, Abou-Ramez Sahmarani, a member of the Danniyé group, stated that he would not leave the camp "even if blood flows in torrents". The Lebanese Army crushed the uprising of the Islamist Danniyé group in January 2000. They are alleged to be linked to the Al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden. When they took refuge in Ain al-Hilwé, they received protection from the Palestinian Jamaat an-Nour after losing the support of Asbat al-Ansar, an organization Washington has listed as "terrorist" and whose leader, Abou-Mahjan, has been condemned to death by a Lebanese court for the murder of a Moslem leader of moderate views.
Jamaat an-Nour claimed responsibility for the attack on a Fatah post, which it described as "a nest of renegades and scoundrels." It had previously threatened to "provoke a bloodbath in Ain al-Hilwé and the rest of Lebanon if other brothers are handed over" to the Lebanese authorities. However, Abou Obieda, who murdered three Lebanese soldiers, was delivered to the Lebanese Army after talks led by Sheikh Maher Hammoud. Since the Abou Obeida affair, the main Palestinian groups, Islamic and secular, wanted to part company with the extremists Lebanon wished to arrest. This caused the tension expressed in attacks on Fatah, whose desire to hand over the Danniyé refugees to the authorities is dictated by its aim to strengthen the political and military position of the PLO, which is led by Yasser Arafat.
In the meantime, the ideological and political struggle among the Palestinian factions goes on, notably between Fatah and the Islamists, with each side trying to consolidate its position and delimit its territory. Defense Minister Khalil Hrawi said that the Lebanese Army will not intervene and expressed the hope that the Ain al-Hilwé conflict would not go beyond the framework of political divergences among Palestinians.
