BEIRUT — An
electrical short circuit in a store containing oxygen supplies for COVID-19
patients caused the blast that rocked a
Palestinian refugee camp in south
Lebanon, the Islamist group Hamas said Saturday.
اضافة اعلان
One man died of his injuries in Friday
night's explosion that left a few people wounded, said a Palestinian official
in the Burj Al-Shemali camp, outside the port city of Tyre.
Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement,
denied media reports that an arms depot had blown up.
The explosion, which blackened the walls and
shattered windows of a nearby mosque, was caused by an electrical short circuit
that sparked a fire in a store containing the oxygen tanks, it said in a
statement.
"An electrical short circuit in a
storage depot containing a quantity of gas and oxygen canisters for coronavirus
patients" caused the blast, it said.
"The fire caused damage to property but
the impact was limited," it said, without detailing casualties.
Officially,
Lebanon hosts some 192,000
Palestinian refugees, most of whom live in the country's 12 camps, according to
the
UNRWA.
By longstanding agreement, the Lebanese army
does not enter the camps, leaving security inside to Palestinian factions.
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