23 November 2016•Update: 23 November 2016
By Ola Atallah
GAZA CITY, Palestine
Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has criticized plans by the Lebanese authorities to build a concrete wall around a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon.
The planned wall, the group said in a statement, is "the wrong way to deal with the issue of Palestinian refugees".
On Tuesday, reports emerged that the Lebanese authorities had begun erecting a concrete barrier around Ain al-Hilweh, the country’s largest Palestinian refugee camp.
Located southeast of Lebanon’s coastal city of Sidon, Ain al-Hilweh is currently home to more than 100,000 Palestinian refugees, many of whom came to the camp in recent years after fleeing the conflict in next-door Syria.
"This wall… will only serve to hurt the refugees’ cause, threaten their future, harm their interests and contribute to the deterioration of their already-dire humanitarian condition," Hamas said.
The group criticized what it described as Lebanon’s policy of "the collective isolation" of Palestinian refugee camps on its territory.
Hamas went on to assert that the planned wall would represent a violation of international law and the principles of human rights, and would likely strain Palestinian-Lebanese relations.
According to UN figures, roughly 460,000 Palestinian refugees are currently living in 12 major camps scattered across Lebanon.
