SIDON: All reports about extremist groups in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon are pure fiction, said Fatah central committee member Sultan Abu al-Aynayn
on Saturday during a meeting with Education Minister Bahia Hariri. The two met in the southern town of Majdalyoun as part of the minister’s tour to examine the situation in the Palestinian camps and to discuss Palestinian affairs.
Aynayn told Hariri that even though some people may have radical thoughts, they would not dare to consider Palestinian camps as their refuge or to shake Lebanon’s civil peace and stability. He added that the Palestinians had not yet forgotten the events of Nahr al-Bared and that they still saw them as "a lesson."
Islamist militants from Fatah al-Islam fought the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) for more than three months in mid-2007 at Nahr al-Bared, largely destroying what had been one of Lebanon’s most prosperous camps. The Ain al-Hilweh camp in Sidon has long been home to any number of armed groups, some of whom fought deadly battles with the LAF during the Nahr al-Bared conflict.
"Our camps are in a state of stability, in spite of the pain we live with every day," he said. Aynayn also tackled the issue of the dialogue Fatah is to hold with Hamas in Cairo, saying Palestinian unity was essential to confront Israel.