The Lebanese Armed Forces issued on Friday a statement about a security wall being built around a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon.
“It’s only a protective fence in some areas that don’t oversee residential regions. The military command affirms that there is no decision to build such a wall between the camp and its surroundings,” the army said in the statement.
The statement refers to an army plan to build a wall around the Ain al-Hilweh camp in Sidon to “prevent the infiltration of terrorists from and into it.”
The entrances of the camp will remain open, but the wall will close tunnels that Ain al-Hilweh residents use to reach nearby agricultural fields, the statement added.
Ain al-Hilweh camp is well known for instability and for several hard-line groups. Extremists repeatedly take refuge inside the camp, which is off-limits to the Lebanese security apparatuses and is instead managed by a joint security force representing the camp’s various factions.
