BEIRUT: Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk said Monday that Lebanon hopes a political solution could resolve the issue of fugitives hiding out in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh.
“As a first step, we will give way to a political solution,” Machnouk told local newspaper As-Safir.
“But we will not back down on our demand that the fugitives be handed over,” he stressed.
It remained vague if Machnouk was alluding to a possible security operation to nab fugitives inside the camp. Lebanese security forces typically do not enter Palestinian camps under a 1969 agreement.
A number of terror suspects are believed to be hiding in the Ain al-Hilweh camp.
On Sunday, Sheikh Jamal Khattab, spiritual leader of Islamist factions in Ain al-Hilweh, in the southern port city of Sidon, said that Shadi Mawlawi, one of Lebanon’s most-wanted terror suspects, had left the camp, providing the first official confirmation of the news after it emerged over the weekend.
Machnouk said that the government’s demand to hand over the fugitives has been conveyed to the various Palestinian factions.
“I have stressed to them [Palestinian groups] that the current situation in the camp is not in favor of the Palestinians or in favor of mutual relations [with Lebanon],” he said.
Palestinian groups, in turn, have informed Machnouk that they are under the law and expressed hope that the issue would be resolved quietly, As-Safir said. They also stressed that they will not allow Ain al-Hilweh to become a safe haven for fugitives.
Azzam al-Ahmad, a member of the Fatah Movement’s Central Committee, said during a visit to Lebanon last week that Lebanese and Palestinian authorities would coordinate efforts to peacefully resolve the issue of fugitives.
Ahmad dismissed reports that he had received a list of names of wanted suspects hiding in Ain al-Hilweh, saying: “It is not a list but a few names.”
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