CLASHES in Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp near the southern port city of Sidon today left five people dead and seven others wounded, Palestinian officials said.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the fighting broke out after an unknown gunman tried to assassinate Islamist militant Mahmoud Khalil, killing a companion of his instead.

Later, Islamist militants assassinated a Palestinian military general from the Fatah group and three escorts, another Palestinian official told reporters.

Factions used assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers in the overcrowded Ein el-Hilweh camp as ambulances zoomed through its narrow streets to take the wounded to the hospital. 

Palestinian groups in the camp for years have cracked down on militant Islamists and fugitives seeking shelter in the camp’s overcrowded neighbourhoods. 

In 2017, Palestinian groups engaged in almost a week of fierce clashes with a militant organisation affiliated with the extremist Islamic State.

The Lebanese army said in a statement that a mortar shell landed in a military barracks outside the camp, wounding one soldier, whose condition is stable.

Ein el-Hilweh, home to some 55,000 people, is notorious for its violence. 

It was established in 1948 to host Palestinians displaced by Israeli occupying forces during the establishment of Israel.