Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fateh movement declared Thursday a state of alert among its ranks in refugee camps in Lebanon, a day after Israel's arrest of 15 Fateh members in the West Bank.
"We are in a state of alert," Sultan Abul Aynain, Arafat's representative in Lebanon, told AFP from his office at the Rashidiyeh camp near this southern port city.
"We have taken precautionary measures in asking Fateh cadres to leave their homes and offices in refugee camps in Tyre and Sidon in south Lebanon," said Abul Aynain, head of the mainstream Fateh movement in Lebanon.
Abul Aynain warned that the measures were necessary "because there is a real war against the Palestinian people."
"We have received indications that (Israeli Prime Minister Ehud) Barak might strike the camps in southern Lebanon as part of his attacks against Fateh cadres with helicopters and warplanes and even from the sea because we, in Lebanon, are part of the Intifada," the Palestinian uprising against Israel.
On Wednesday, the Israeli army arrested 15 Fateh members it suspects of shootings against Israeli civilians and soldiers, in an operation conducted with the Shin Beth internal security service in the West Bank.
"The next phase of the Intifada program is the rule of the people on territories not yet liberated, which means the confrontation of the settlers to force them to leave, not only with stones, but also with all other means even with arms and knives," Abul Aynain said -- TYRE, Lebanon (AFP)
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