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Conflicting reports emerge on recovered Ain al-Hilweh arms


November 14, 2011



SIDON, Lebanon: Conflicting reports have emerged about a supply of arms and ammunition discovered over the weekend in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh, and their connection to a cache of Fatah Movement weapons that recently went missing from the camp.
Sources told The Daily Star that the Palestinian Armed Struggle, a Fatah-dominated police force in the camp, tracked several arms dealers and Saturday found a number of the items stolen from a Fatah warehouse in the possession of a man identified as Suleiman S.
Fatah displayed the weapons and ammunition after their alleged recovery.
Thirteen AK-47 rifles, an M16 rifle, a box of hand grenades, two boxes of ammunition and 40 AK-47 magazines went missing recently from a Fatah warehouse in the camp.
Sources from the investigation committee formed by Fatah, and headed by Major General Subhi Abu Arab, said that the movement bought the arms back from Suleiman in order to end speculation that the arms were smuggled into Syria.
However, another Fatah source told The Daily Star that the arms discovered on Suleiman may not be those stolen from the Fatah warehouse, and that the news that the weapons were discovered and purchased back – as well as the display – may be a way for Fatah officials to put an end to the issue.
The source said that the investigation committee did its work after the Palestinian Armed Struggle, headed by Colonel Mahmoud Issa, received information that some of the missing arms were with arms dealers inside the camp.
According to the source, when officials from the Palestinian Armed Struggle visited Suleiman, who is a known arms dealer, he told them that he had purchased the weapons from a man known as “Hussein Sh.” Hussein was the guard of the burgled Fatah arms warehouse, and he vanished at the same time as the arms.
Suleiman said he did not know the arms were stolen, adding that he immediately sold them. The source told The Daily Star that Suleiman said he had similar weapons, which were bought and displayed by the Palestinian Armed Struggle.