Fatah leader calls for armed Palestinian mobilization to save Yarmouk

A top Fatah official on Friday called upon party members in Lebanon and Syria to arm themselves to fight the Islamic State group which has recently seized the Damascus-area Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk.

Major-General Tawfiq al-Tirawi told Ma'an that "the suffering of Palestinians in the Yarmouk refugee camp should be ended, and they should be protected from terrorist groups like IS, al-Nusra Front and others."

He called upon Palestinian fighters in Syria and Lebanon to head to the Yarmouk refugee camp to fight these groups.

Al-Tirawi said that Palestinian refugee camps are neutral in the Syrian internal conflict but that some "terrorist groups" are attempting to push Palestinians into ongoing events.

Al-Tirawi's call for mobilization is one of the first major calls by a Palestinian leader for an armed response to aggression against the Palestinian refugee camps in Syria. Palestinians have generally struggled to maintain their neutrality in what they consider an "internal" conflict.

Before the conflict broke out in 2011, around 500,000 Palestinians lived in Syria, descendants of those who were expelled from their homes by Israel in 1948 and forbidden from returning. more

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