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Maqdah said a tense calm had returned to the camp in the evening, as most militants and residents attended evening prayers before breaking the sunrise-to-sunset fast of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
An AFP correspondent in the camp said clashes erupted Saturday afternoon between members of the mainstream Fatah faction, loyal to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, and Sunni Islamist group Jund al-Sham, or "Soldiers of Damascus."
The correspondent said the army had cordoned off all four entry points to the camp but had also allowed families to flee Ain al-Helweh, as gunmen could be seen patrolling the streets inside.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Fatah official told AFP the clashes were linked to the arrest on Friday of a Jund al-Sham member accused of planting a bomb in the camp targeting Fatah's Lebanon commander Mahmud Issa, alias "Al-Lino."
By long-standing convention, the Lebanese army does not enter the country's 12 refugee camps, leaving security inside to the Palestinians themselves.
Ain al-Helweh, the largest Palestinian camp in the country, is home to about 50,000 refugees and is known to harbour extremists and fugitives.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) estimates that some 425,000 Palestinian refugees are living in Lebanon, a country with a population of four million.
Others, however, estimate the number to be closer to 250,000.
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An AFP correspondent in the camp said clashes erupted Saturday afternoon between members of the mainstream Fatah faction, loyal to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, and Sunni Islamist group Jund al-Sham, or "Soldiers of Damascus."
The correspondent said the army had cordoned off all four entry points to the camp but had also allowed families to flee Ain al-Helweh, as gunmen could be seen patrolling the streets inside.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Fatah official told AFP the clashes were linked to the arrest on Friday of a Jund al-Sham member accused of planting a bomb in the camp targeting Fatah's Lebanon commander Mahmud Issa, alias "Al-Lino."
By long-standing convention, the Lebanese army does not enter the country's 12 refugee camps, leaving security inside to the Palestinians themselves.
Ain al-Helweh, the largest Palestinian camp in the country, is home to about 50,000 refugees and is known to harbour extremists and fugitives.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) estimates that some 425,000 Palestinian refugees are living in Lebanon, a country with a population of four million.
Others, however, estimate the number to be closer to 250,000.
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