Clashes damage may delay school year at Ain el-Helweh camp

Clashes damage may delay school year at Ain el-Helweh camp

Damage to the school complex in Lebanon's largest Palestinian refugee camp from recent clashes between factions could delay the start of the school year for some 6,000 children, a United Nations official said Friday.

The concern arose after heavy street battles broke out Sunday in Ain el-Helweh between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement and Islamist groups Jund al-Sham and al-Shabab al-Muslim. The clashes erupted after Fatah accused the Islamists of gunning down a Fatah military general, Abu Ashraf al Armoushi, in the camp.

The fighting has killed at least 13 people, injured dozens more and displaced thousands from the camp, which is home to more than 50,000 people.

Although an uneasy calm has prevailed over the past two days, staff from the U.N.'s agency for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon have been unable to access the camp to make a full damage assessment or to provide services.

Dorothee Klaus, Director of UNRWA in Lebanon, told The Associated Press that a heavily fortified complex of four of the agency's schools "was raided by the involved militants and was unfortunately also used as a starting point for the battle."

Militants from the Islamist groups reportedly shot Armoushi from a position inside the school complex.

In the fighting that