The deputy of Palestine Liberation Organization representative in Lebanon Abbas Zaki was killed on Monday in a bomb blast outside the southern refugee camp of Miyeh Miyeh. "Kamal Medhat was killed along with four of his bodyguards when a roadside bomb exploded as his convoy drove by, near the entrance to the camp," said Munir Maqdah, in charge of security at Lebanon's 12 refugee camps. According to Future News, among those killed in the Miyeh Miyeh blast are Mohammed Shehadeh, Akram Daher and Khaled Daher.
A Fatah spokesman in the occupied West Bank told Reuters that Kamal Medhat - also known as Kamal Maji - had been "assassinated". Fahmy al-Zaarir, the Fatah spokesman in the West Bank said that Abbas Zaki was also visiting the camp at the time of the attack but was uninjured.
TV footage showed Medhat's vehicle plunged into a large crater formed by the force of the explosion.
Media reports said Palestinian factions inside Ain el-Hilweh and Miyeh Miyeh camps went on alert while the Lebanese army took security measures in the vicinity of the shantytowns. The refugee camps near the southern port city of Sidon are controlled by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah group.
Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the killing as an act of terrorism. "President Abbas condemns the terrorist crime that targeted Major General Kamal Medhat," he said in a statement issued by his office. "He dedicated his life to serve his people and his cause," the statement added.
On his part, Hamas representative in Lebanon Osama Hamdan vehemently condemned the killing. He told Al-Manar TV that the "crime" was in the interests of the Palestinian people's enemies, stressing that the death of Medhat considers a major loss for the Palestinians. Asked about the identity of the criminals, Hamdan said that the main suspect is, no doubt, the Zionist entity and its tools.
Lebanon's Hizbullah also condemned the assassination of Medhat and his companions. The Shiite movement warned that the crime was targeting both the Palestinian and Lebanese nations, emphasizing that the "Zionist fingerprints behind it were obvious."
© 2009 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
