BEIRUT (Dispatches) – Lebanon’s caretaker premier Najib Mikati said on Saturday there was no cause for “concern or panic” about his country’s security situation, after Germany and Persian Gulf countries issued new travel warnings following outbreaks of violence.
Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Germany and Britain updated their travel warnings amid clashes between rival armed groups in a camp of Ain el-Hilweh in Lebanon’s south.
In a statement, Mikati said he had spoken with his security chiefs and assessed that the situation “does not call for concern or panic”. He said there had been “significant progress” in resolving the unrest in Ain el-Hilweh, where at least 13 people have been killed in fighting.
The statement said foreign minister Abdullah Bou Habib had been tasked with reassuring Arab countries that their citizens were safe in Lebanon.
The Saudi embassy on Friday urged its citizens to leave Lebanon quickly and avoid areas where there have been armed clashes.
The Saudi statement on X, formerly known as Twitter, stressed “the importance of adhering to the Saudi travel ban to Lebanon”.
Kuwait on Saturday urged its nationals in Lebanon to stay vigilant and avoid “areas of security disturbances,” but stopped short of asking them to leave.
Last week, Germany warned citizens not to travel to Lebanon. Britain advised against “all but essential travel” to parts of Lebanon.
The Palestinian Hamas resistance movement asked Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah to do his best in order to stop deadly clashes between Palestinian factions in the densely populated refugee camp in Lebanon.
In a message, the head of Hamas’ political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, asked Nasrallah to intervene as clashes rage between Palestinian groups in the Palestinian Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp in southern Lebanon, Shehab news agency reported.
Haniyeh said that Hamas wants peace and stability in Ain al-Hilweh, noting that the weapons of the Palestinian groups must only be directed at the Zionist enemy.
The violence erupted in the refugee camp on Saturday, when an unknown gunman attempted to kill a member of an armed group named Mahmoud Khalil, but fatally shot his companion instead.
In the confrontations that ensued, Abu Ashraf al-Armouchi, a senior commander with the Fatah party who was in charge of security inside Ain el-Hilweh, was killed along with several of his aides.
Reports say many terrorists and extremists have infiltrated the camp, targeting Fatah members and trying to create chaos.
Speaking during a televised address on Tuesday, Nasrallah called for a halt to the clashes, saying, “This fighting must not continue because its repercussions are bad – for the camp’s residents, for the dear Palestinian people … for the south, for all of Lebanon.”
A ceasefire subsided the fighting, but heavy confrontations resumed on Wednesday.