Palestinian Camp Fighting Kills 10

Vicious fighting broke out early Friday between supporters and opponents of PLO leader Yasser Arafat in a refugee camp in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon, leaving 10 people dead and 15 wounded.

Ein el Hilweh, a community of 60,000 Palestinian refugees, became a battleground as followers of the militant Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements, which oppose Arafat’s peace accord with Israel, fought Arafat loyalists with AK-47 assault rifles and grenade launchers.

The Arafat loyalists, led by Lt. Col. Kemal Medhat, attempted to oust the dissidents from certain areas of the camp. The dissidents’ strength has grown since the signing of the limited autonomy accord with Israel in September, 1993.

The leader of the anti-Arafat forces, Lt. Col. Munir Makdah, blamed the Palestine Liberation Organization chief for fomenting the confrontation to divert world attention from the deaths last week of at least 12 Arafat opponents who clashed with Palestinian police in the Gaza Strip.

Friday’s nine-hour battle--the worst in the camp in more than a year--stopped when mediators arranged a cease-fire for noon prayers, but residents reported that firing could be heard again as night fell.

Lebanon’s Palestinian factions complied with a Lebanese army order in 1991 to surrender their heavy weapons, but an exception was granted for medium- and lightweight arms, based on the camp leaders’ fear of attacks similar to the massacres in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut in 1982.