Fatah commander in Lebanon Sultan Abu al-Aynayn said on Thursday there were no political disputes raging in Lebanon's 12 Palestinian refugee camps, local Daily Star reported on Friday.
Abu al-Aynayn said all the political parties present in the camps were aware of their "limits" and would not allow another battle to take place in a Palestinian camp, as happened between Islamist group Fatah al-Islam and the Lebanese Armed Forces in 2007 at Nahr al-Bared near Tripoli in north Lebanon, Xinhua reported.
However, Abu al-Aynayn said tight security measures were being enforced in the camps following the arrest of a militant group thought to have links to a major fundamentalist Islamic group.
Five members of Fatah al-Islam were arrested last week in Borj al-Shamali refugee camp in southern Lebanese city of Tyre. The five detainees, who were tasked with monitoring UN Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) for potential terrorist attacks, are now under interrogation by Lebanese authorities.
Fatah al-Islam gained infamy after they fought a three-month battle in 2007 against the Lebanese army in Nahr al-Bared, home to about 22,000 refugees. The clashes killed 220 militants, 171 Lebanese soldiers and 47 Palestinian civilians.
There are now about 400,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, the majority of whom live in refugee camps run by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
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