PLO urges Hamas to stop storing weapons "in the heart of populated areas"
Headline: “An explosion in the Al-Burj Al-Shamali refugee camp warns against the dangers of unregulated weapons”
“The [Lebanese state-run] National News Agency reported that explosions were heard in the Palestinian Al-Burj Al-Shamali refugee camp east of Tyre, in one of ‘the Islamic centers’ in the refugee camp…
A female reporter of the National News Agency in Sidon noted that after a loud sound was heard in the refugee camp… it became clear that it was caused by an explosion in a Hamas Movement weapons storehouse…
Exclusive sources of [the official PA daily] Al-Hayat Al-Jadida revealed that Hamza Shahin Abu Muhammad, a senior Hamas official who belonged to the Palestinian community in Syria, was killed (Hamas announced his death) [parentheses in source]. According to the source, at the site of the explosion there were 12 wounded, five of them moderately wounded and one seriously wounded…
Palestinian factions condemned the fact that Hamas is storing weapons and ammunition in the heart of populated areas and civilian buildings, and held it responsible for the explosion…
PLO Executive Committee member and coordinator of the forces and factions Wasel Abu Yusuf said: ‘Hamas’ storing weapons in mosques, houses, and public places is unacceptable, must not be repeated, and damages the Palestinian-Lebanese relations.’
In an interview with [the official PA] radio [station] The Voice of Palestine, Yusuf demanded that Hamas not belittle the civilians’ lives as happened in the Al-Zawiya market in Gaza (refers to lethal explosion at Hamas weapons storehouse on July 22, 2021 -Ed.) and in Al-Burj Al-Shamali in Lebanon…
PLO Executive Committee member [and PA Minister of Social Development] Ahmed Majdalani expressed deep concern over the explosion. He said that this raises fears regarding the security of our people in the refugee camps…
Majdalani told The Voice of Palestine radio: ‘Regardless of the reasons that Hamas markets in order to store its weapons under mosques, this is unacceptable out of a concern for our people’s security and wellbeing.’
He explained that there is no need to put the Palestinian situation into an internal crisis in Lebanon, hinting that this explosion is liable to give those who incite against the Palestinian presence [in Lebanon] a new opportunity, and this is following Lebanese Minister of Labor [Mustafa Bayram’s] decision to allow the [Palestinian] refugees to work in professions that they were forbidden from working in for decades. He added: ‘Hamas has not learned from the experience of the Palestinian revolution and the PLO in Lebanon and from what they have dealt with there.’”
Wasel Abu Yusuf also serves as secretary-general of the terror organization Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF).
Ahmed Majdalani also serves as Secretary-General of the terror organization Palestinian Popular Struggle Front (PPSF), PLO Executive Committee member, and head of the PLO Department of Labor and Planning.