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UNRWA Suspends Services in Palestinian Refugee Camp in Lebanon after Clashes

FILE - Palestinian boys jump during a soccer training session at a school run by the agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, at Ain el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, on June 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari, File)
FILE - Palestinian boys jump during a soccer training session at a school run by the agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, at Ain el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, on June 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari, File)
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UNRWA Suspends Services in Palestinian Refugee Camp in Lebanon after Clashes

FILE - Palestinian boys jump during a soccer training session at a school run by the agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, at Ain el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, on June 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari, File)
FILE - Palestinian boys jump during a soccer training session at a school run by the agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, at Ain el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, on June 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari, File)

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has suspended services at the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon to protest the presence of armed fighters around its schools and other facilities within the area.

Deadly clashes broke out last month at the Ain el-Hilweh camp near the southern city of Sidon after Islamist gunmen tried to assassinate Fatah leader Mahmoud Khalil, forcing hundreds to flee.

"The Agency does not tolerate actions that breach the inviolability and neutrality of its installations,” UNRWA said in a statement.

It said that schools in the camp were unlikely to be available for 3,200 children at the start of the new school year.

"UNRWA reiterates its call on armed actors to immediately vacate its facilities, to ensure unimpeded delivery of much needed assistance to Palestine Refugees," the agency added.

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Israeli Airstrike on Apartment Building in Lebanese Coastal Town Kills at Least 1

A building damaged in an Israeli military strike in the town of Jiyeh, south of Beirut, Lebanon, 05 November 2024. (EPA)
A building damaged in an Israeli military strike in the town of Jiyeh, south of Beirut, Lebanon, 05 November 2024. (EPA)
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Israeli Airstrike on Apartment Building in Lebanese Coastal Town Kills at Least 1

A building damaged in an Israeli military strike in the town of Jiyeh, south of Beirut, Lebanon, 05 November 2024. (EPA)
A building damaged in an Israeli military strike in the town of Jiyeh, south of Beirut, Lebanon, 05 November 2024. (EPA)

An Israeli airstrike on an apartment building in a coastal town south of Beirut killed at least one person, Lebanon’s Health Ministry said.

The ministry said 20 others were wounded in the strike Tuesday in Jiyeh, around 10 kilometers (6 miles) north of the port of Sidon.

The attack hit an area that has not been a regular target of Israeli military operations and had not received prior evacuation warnings.

“It felt like it was inside the house,” Malika Al Hajj, an elderly woman living in the area, told The Associated Press. “I ran away — I don’t even know which neighbor brought me out, because everything was black. You couldn’t see anything.”

Once outside, Hajj said she discovered that the strike had hit the nearby building where her nephews live.

“Men, women and children” live inside, she said. “I just want to be reassured. I saw some of them, but the others, they told me, were taken to the hospital."

At the site of the strike, the building’s skeletal frame stands amid the rubble, its concrete shattered, windows blown out and metal twisted from the impact.

Families were seen leaving the area, carrying what belongings they could gather.

Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed at least 3,013 people and injured 13,553 others since Oct. 2023, the Lebanese government said on Tuesday.