Sidon, Lebanon: Masked gunmen killed a Palestinian commander in the Ain Al Helweh refugee camp in southern Lebanon on Monday, a camp official told AFP.
“Two masked gunmen on a motorcycle... opened fire with a machine gun on Mohammad Zeidan in front of his home,” the camp official from the mainstream Fatah faction of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said.
“He was transferred to a health centre but was pronounced dead on arrival,” the official added, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity.
A camp medic said Zeidan had been sprayed with at least 15 bullets.
Armed Fatah loyalists took to the streets of Ain Al Helweh as the news broke.
The killing is the latest in a spate of attacks targeting officials in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp outside the southern port of Sidon.
Some 350,000 Palestinians live in Lebanon, most of them in a dozen camps dotted around the country.
Lebanese forces leave security inside the camps largely in the hands of the Palestinian factions.
