Conflict Incident Report

Tensions simmered in south Lebanon’s Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp after unknown individuals threw a hand grenade inside the camp, leaving five Palestinians wounded, a security source told The Daily Star.

Palestinians Samer Meri' and Haitham and Hamza Khatib, in addition to an unidentified woman and child were wounded.

They were rushed to the nearby Nidaa’ al-Insani hospital in Ain al-Hilweh for treatment. They were later transferred to Rai hospital in Sidon for surgeries.

Members of the Palestinian security force are currently looking for individuals suspected of conducting the assault.

The attack comes one day before Eid al-Fitr when the streets in the camp are bustling with shopping residents.

Palestinian leaders in Sidon condemned the attack in a statement calling it "an ugly crime."

Saturday morning, calm had returned to the camp after a shooting between two families left one woman wounded.

A scuffle between al-Abed and Shreim families in Baraksat neighborhood in Sidon’s Ain al-Hilweh developed into a shooting in the early morning hours Saturday, leaving a woman from Shreim family wounded .

The Palestinian joint security force managed to de-escalate the tensions in the camp that has repeatedly witnessed similar incidents between individuals and families.

The security force is an alliance of nationalist and Islamist Palestinian factions whose members are in charge of security inside the camp, de-facto off limits for Lebanese security agencies.

Separately, the Palestinian security force Saturday handed over a suspect to Lebanese Army Intelligence over involvement in a previous shooting incident.

The suspect of the June 8 shooting in Ain al-Hilweh, identified as Ibrahim K., was surrendered to Lebanese authorities after the political leaders of Palestinian factions in Sidon unanimously approved the move.

The handover took place near Sidon governmental hospital at a Lebanese Army checkpoint.

One Palestinian was killed and another wounded in the June 8 dispute.

A Palestinian, identified as Mahmoud K., had been previously handed over to Army Intelligence in south Lebanon over the June 8 shooting.

The camp, home to some 100,000 Palestinians, is also notorious for harboring fugitives and extremists.

Skirmishes between rival Palestinian factions are not uncommon in the camp.