The small apartment where Mohamed Samour, his wife and their two children lived, in the Bustan al-Quds district, was ravaged by recent fighting in Ein el-Hilweh, a Palestinian refugee camp in Sidon, southern Lebanon. Walls were ripped open, doors were blown off their hinges, and rubble piled up on the ground. What furniture remained had been blackened by fire. "The destruction is unbelievable in the area where we live. We were on the front line. We don't have a house anymore. My car was smashed up," said Samour, a 39-year-old Palestinian, on the outskirts of the camp, as he scrolled through images of his home on his phone.

The clashes at the end of July, which left 13 people dead, pitted fighters from Fatah, the party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, against militiamen from various small Islamist groups in the camp, including Jund al Sham and Shabab al Muslim. They lasted five days, punctuated by several broken ceasefires, before one that began on August 3 finally held. But residents remain on their guard. "God only knows what's in store for us," said Samira Zaarour, a woman in her 60s who "hid in [her] house during the fighting."

The Lebanese army – which does not enter the enclave but closes off the various access points with fixed roadblocks – tightened its controls on the main entrance to the camp on Friday, August 11. The military has begun searching cars in both directions. Shells were discovered in a vehicle entering Ein el-Hilweh the previous day. Sidon's public hospital, which is nearby, bears bullet holes in its façade; its patients were evacuated at the height of the fighting.

In recent years, violence, often fueled by factional power struggles, has repeatedly plunged Lebanon's largest Palestinian camp, with its tens of thousands of residents, into mourning. It is considered the "capital" of the refugees, whose elders were expelled from their land when Israel was created in 1948.

This time, the outbursts were preceded by a murder. But the escalation began after Abu Ashraf Al-Armoushi, Fatah's local military chief, was shot dead by Islamists along with four of his men on July 30. This was a major blow for the movement, whose historic authority in the camp is contested by rivals.

In the northern part of Ein el-Hilweh, where most of the fighting – with automatic weapons, anti-tank rockets and explosions – took place, the situation has not returned to normal. Fatah men remain deployed in the streets and have cut off key roads to traffic, according to local residents. Islamist fighters remain entrenched in a school complex belonging to UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East. It was from here that Al-Armoushi was most likely targeted. Negotiations have been ceaselessly ongoing to ensure that the main gunmen – both Fatah and Islamist – involved in the mini-conflict are handed over to the Lebanese army. This is the condition for a lasting return to calm.

You have 49.51% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.