Conflict Incident Report

Lebanese Army Intelligence have arrested a man accused of instigating deadly clashes that erupted Wednesday evening in the Shatila Palestinian refugee camp in southern Beirut, according to an Army statement released Thursday.

The man, identified as Mohammad Abu Zahra – also known as Abu Eyyad Zahra – is accused of being “the main instigator” of armed clashes that killed at least one person and injured others, the statement read.

Authorities were working to “arrest others responsible” for taking part in the clashes, according to the Lebanese Army statement.

It was not immediately clear from the statement whether Zahra was a member of any particular faction present within Shatila, though a Hamas statement released Thursday said the clashes took place between two armed groups located in the camp.

The Daily Star reported previously that the clashes were between members of Fatah Intifada, a splinter group from the Fatah Movement, and the Saaiqa group, an armed militia with ties to the Syrian government.

At least one man was killed in the clashes, which included RPG and machine gun fire, a security source said Wednesday night.

A group of Palestinian factions in the Shatila refugee held an “urgent” meeting Wednesday night to stem further tensions following the clashes, according to Hamas.

Those present at the meeting formed an “investigations committee” to study what led to the clashes, as well as a security force “composed of all the factions [present in Shatila] except for those two that took part in yesterday’s clashes,” the statement read.

Shatila is home to nearly 10,000 registered Palestinian refugees, according to UNRWA, as well as an unknown number of Syrian refugees.