Palestinians ready strike force to seize Lebanese militant

Palestinian groups inside the Ain Hilweh refugee camp set up a strike force yesterday to seize a Lebanese, who is believed to be hiding in the camp after killing three army intelligence agents last week.

"I dispatched some 100 members from my faction to the newly-formed security committee," Munir Maqdah, a senior Fatah official based in Ain Hilweh, told Gulf News in a telephone interview.

On Sunday, the committee sent a delegation to the home of Abdullah Shreidi to inform him that he would have to hand over Badih Hamadeh, a militant who ambushed an army patrol on Thursday evening, or face action by a Palestinian Liberation Organisation, Al-Kifah Al-Mussallah.

Shreidi admitted that Badih Hamadeh, who killed the three army intelligence agents, was hiding at his place. However, he said that he would not hand him over because in Islam, "when someone asks for your help, then he is safe and you could not turn him over to others."

With 150 militiamen armed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades gathered at the main entrance of the camp, on the outskirts of the southern port city of Sidon, and as the army tightened its siege of the camp, a number of families began to flee the camp.

According to Maqdah, the number is over 4,000. "People are afraid and there is pressure from their side to end this conflict," he said.

However, Maqdah said the Palestinians had no plans to develop the conflict into a military clash inside the dusty narrow alleyways of the largest refugee camp in Lebanon.

When contacted by phone, Adnan Rifai, a member of the committee, said he could not give an interview as a bomb detonated minutes earlier near the Fatah offices in the camp. He said there were no injuries.

Lebanese authorities have no access to Ain Hilweh or the other 11 Palestinian camps scattered across Lebanon. The camps are run by Palestinian factions and Ain Hilweh has gained a notoriety as a hideout for fugitives.