The media office of Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri announced the ceasefire in the Ain al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp, which will take effect at six pm local time on Thursday.

These clashes between militants of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah) and a group calling itself "Muslim Youth" have left 9 people dead and dozens injured, bringing the death toll since the beginning of the fighting last July to 29, and the wounded to more than 200.

Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri met with Musa Abu Marzouk, a member of Hamas' political bureau, who condemned the shootings in the camp as suspicious and unrelated to the Palestinian cause, Berri's office said in a statement.

Abu Marzouk told a news conference, "We are doing our best for security, justice, extradition, and to be a tool of good for our people and for Lebanon."


Berri later met with Azzam al-Ahmad, a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Central Committee of the Fatah movement, who said, after the meeting, "There must be a ceasefire and absolute commitment to it from any quarter, because the conspiracy is great against the Ain al-Hilweh camp and the future of the Palestinian cause."

"There is international Arab and foreign involvement in this conspiracy targeting Ain al-Hilweh camp, the capital of the Palestinian diaspora, and unfortunately the agreement was reached more than once, but it was collapsing quickly," al-Ahmad said.

Thursday's clashes between Fatah and the Muslim Youth group are a new violation of the ceasefire agreement reached last Monday, after a meeting between Palestinian officials and Lebanese security.

These developments come after a calm that lasted for about a month, following armed confrontations at the end of July, which led to the death of 14 people.

The number of Palestinian refugees in Ein al-Hilweh camp is estimated at 300,<>.

The Lebanese army or security forces do not enter the camps under previous tacit agreements, leaving the task of policing them to the Palestinians themselves, while the Lebanese army imposes strict measures around them.