DAMASCUS, Syria — Palestinian factions in Syria called for a cease-fire Tuesday after fighting flared at a refugee camp in the capital, Damascus, highlighting a split among Palestinians as the civil war intensifies.
The Yarmouk camp has been the scene of heavy clashes in the past, but the battles subsided last month after Syrian rebels fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad battled loyalists there to a standstill.
In Tuesday’s fighting, five people were killed on Yarmouk Street, four of them when a shell exploded and the fifth in sniper fire, according to the Britain-based Observatory for Human Righ ts that relies on reports from activists on the ground.
The group said intense clashes were taking place on the edges of the camp, where the Syrian troops are positioned, and the nearby Hajar Aswad district.
In a statement, representatives of 14 Damascus-based Palestinian factions called for a cease-fire and a halt to all military operations to enable medical teams and foodsupply trucks to enter the camp. They urged gunmen to withdraw from the camp “in order not to bear the responsibility of the continuing displacement of [Yarmouk’s] residents.”
About half of Yarmouk’s 150,000 residents have fled since fighting broke out in mid-December, according to estimates by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, which administers Palestinian camps in the Middle East. Some sought refuge in neighboring Lebanon, and others found shelter in the agency’s schools in Damascus and other Syrian cities.
Dozens have been killed in the fighting, although the United Nations did not provide an exact figure of casualties in Yarmouk violence, which has included airstrikes and artillery shelling from the Syrian military and clashes between rebels and Assad loyalists.
Khaled Abdul-Majid, a senior representative of the Palestinian factions that issued the statement, told reporters in Damascus, “We are working to end those clashes.”
A U.N. Relief and Works Agency spokesman said Syrian forces continue blocking the camp’s entrances, though residents were allowed to retrieve personal belongings. All of the agency’s facilities in the camp remain closed, including three heath centers that are inaccessible because of the fighting, said the spokesman, Sami Mshasha.
When the revolt against Assad’s rule began in March 2011, the half-million-strong Palestinian community in Syria stayed on the sidelines.As the civil war deepened, most Palestinians backed the rebels, while some groups - such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command - have been fighting alongside the troops. The Popular Front group joined the call for a truce on Tuesday. The group is led by Ahmed Jibril, a longtime Assad ally.
Yarmouk is the largest of nine Palestinian camps in Syria. Since the camp’s creation in 1957, it has evolved into a densely populated residential district just five milesfrom the center of Damascus. Several generations of Palestinian refugees live there.
Also Tuesday, rebels claimed they shot down a military helicopter at the Taftanaz air base in the northern province of Idlib. The Observatory for Human Rights said the helicopter was flying toward the base.
Rebel units, including the al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra group, have battled troops for weeks for control of the base, from which warplanes have been taking off on missions to bomb rebelheld areas around Syria.
Amateur video posted on YouTube by activists showed black smoke rising from what appears to be an airfield. The video was consistent with AP reporting from the area.
Syria’s state-run SANA news agency said army units fought rebels in several areas of Idlib province, including near the Taftanaz base, “killing several terrorists, injuring many others, and destroying their weapons.” Troops also battled opposition fighters in the Damascus suburb of Daraya, and in the northern city of Aleppo, the agency said.
As fighting continues, more than 1 million Syrians are suffering from food shortages but are out of reach ofvital aid because of the fighting and government restrictions, according a statement Tuesday by the World Food Program.
The conflict started as peaceful protests against the Assad rule, but it turned into a civil war after a harsh government crackdown. More than 60,000 people have been killed since the uprising began in March 2011.
Meanwhile, a winter storm is magnifying the misery for tens of thousands of Syrians fleeing the country’s civil war, turning a refugee camp in Jordan into a muddy swamp where howling winds tore down tents and exposed the displaced residents to freezing temperatures.
Some frustrated refugees at a camp in Zaatari, where about 50,000 are sheltered, attacked aid workers with sticks and stones after the tents collapsed in 35 mph winds, said Ghazi Sarhan, spokesman for the Jordanian charity that helps run the camp. Police said seven Jordanian workers were injured.
Information for this article was contributed by Dale Gavlak, Jamal Halaby, Mohammad Hannon, Hussein Malla, Zeina Karam, Suzan Fraser and John Heilprin of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 6 on 01/09/2013