15 Palestinian civilians were killed today when a rocket fired by troops loyal to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) hit a bakery on the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus.
The camp has been an on-again, off-again site of fighting in the Syrian Civil War, where the pro-Assad PFLP once ran the camp, but has increasingly been displaced by other factions loyal to the Syrian rebels.
When the camp was lost, a lot of Palestinian refugees fled abroad, but as the Syrian military has recovered territory around Damascus, the PFLP seems keen to retake control over the camp as well. It’s a battle that is going to be tough, and bloody.
As always it’s the civilian refugees trapped in the camp that suffer the most. Large numbers of the refugees are still in Lebanon from the last time the camp exploded in fighting, and more are sure to follow as the next round escalates. In the end, whichever side has the camp will get exactly that, a mostly-empty camp.
The so-called "rebels" have said they don't have a problem with Israel. They're Palestinian refugees and they don't have a problem with Israel. It would be hilarious if it weren't so tragic.