BEIRUT, Aug. 19 (Xinhua) — Armed groups have seized another school in Ain Al-Helweh Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon, bringing the total number to eight, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said Saturday.
“We are getting credible reports of severe damage to buildings and looting of educational materials and equipment from the schools,” Dorothee Klaus, director of UNRWA Affairs in Lebanon, said in a statement.
UNRWA reiterated in the statement “its urgent call on all armed groups to immediately vacate its premises in the Ain Al-Helweh camp, including schools,” saying their presence constituted a blatant violation of the neutrality and safety of UN facilities and posed a severe threat to the education for thousands of Palestinian refugee children living in the camp as well as to the timely start of the upcoming academic year.
In protest against the armed groups’ occupation of its facilities, UNRWA suspended its services in the camp on Friday and partly resumed its service delivery on Saturday morning, according to the statement.
“The agency remains committed to delivering services including health, solid waste collection and relief services in the camp,” the statement said, demanding “access throughout the camp so that the agency’s services can reach all the 50,000 Palestinian refugees.”
Clashes erupted in Ain Al-Helweh, Lebanon’s largest Palestinian refugee camp, between members of the Palestinian Fatah movement and Islamic activists on July 29. The clashes continued into August, killing at least 13 people and injuring dozens of others, according to UNRWA.
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