MIEH MIEH, Lebanon: A Palestinian joint security force deployed to the southern refugee camp of Mieh Mieh Tuesday in a bid to clamp down on violence, less than a year after a similar security plan was implemented in nearby Ain al-Hilweh.
The Higher Palestinian Security Committee, which supervises the status of Palestinian camps in Lebanon, deployed 45 members of the security force to the camp, located near Sidon.
The force is comprised of members from the camp’s main factions: the Fatah Movement, Hamas, Ansar Allah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Fatah Movement Col. Khaled Saqr and his deputy Hamas member Ahmad al-Khatib are commanding the security force.
The refugee camps of Burj al-Barajneh and Shatila, which are located in Beirut’s southern suburbs, will be the next targets for the deployment of the security force.
“Today we will deploy in the [Mieh Mieh] camp and we will continue our deployment in Ain al-Hilweh evenly, as well as in Beirut’s Burj al-Barajneh and Shatila camps,” Maj. Gen. Sobhi Abu Arab, head of Palestinian National Security, said in a meeting with the heads of the Palestinian security committee.
“We hope that all our brothers in the joint security force will be in the service our people in this camp and maintain its security and stability,” he added.
Maj. Gen. Munir al-Maqdah, head of the joint Palestinian security forces in Lebanon, said Monday that the security plan serves to ensure that camps don’t intervene in Lebanese affairs.
Maqdah also said the elite force in Ain al-Hilweh will receive a boost in terms of its numbers, effectiveness and training.
Sources from Ain al-Hilweh said the size of the force would be increased to 300, and could eventually rise to 500. The force will undergo intensive training and erect new checkpoints in areas previously not under its control, including the neighborhood of Hatten, where a number of prominent Islamists are believed to reside.
The security plan for the Palestinian refugee camps began with the largest, Ain al-Hilweh, in the summer of last year. The initiative has seen mixed results.
The 150-member joint elite force has so far been unable – or has not yet been allowed – to prosecute the perpetrators of numerous murders committed over the past year.
The force has, nevertheless, managed to contain security incidents when they occur, and ease tensions. The group’s composition of secular and Islamist factions is believed to have played a part in its progress.
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