SIDON, Lebanon: The Palestine Liberation Organization and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command denied Monday accusations that the PFLP-GC is preparing for military operations inside the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp, with the front insisting that it was merely preparing to build health and education facilities.

When asked whether there was any truth to the rumors that the front was planning to reopen the camp’s tunnel and carry out military operations, Refaat Jabr, the head in the south of the PFLP-GC, said that on the last day of the July 2006 war, Israel raided the entrance of the tunnel, prompting the PFLP-GC to close it with mounds of earth.

“The tunnel is still closed. What is being said is nonsense and I dare any Palestinian residing in the camp to come out and say whether they have seen any military action or preparation on our part,” Jabr said. “Even when we were in full military force between 1989 and 2006, the work inside the tunnel was limited to organizational action.”

A source from the PLO confirmed that the PFLP-GC was not carrying out any suspicious activities inside the camp and were actually building health and sports facilities.

The Damascus-based PFLP-GC, a controversial Palestinian organization founded in 1968 as a Syrian-backed splinter group of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, has a network of tunnels packed with arms and ammunition in Naameh, the Bekaa Valley and Ain al-Hilweh.

Although the PFLP-GC was a former member of the PLO, it opposed any political settlement with Israel, and it declared that its primary focus would be military and not political.

“We own a military office in Ain al-Hilweh camp where carrying arms is banned, and our men are prohibited from carrying arms on the camp’s streets,” Jabr added, accusing Palestinian organizations that are against the Syrian regime of being responsible for circulating rumors, despite what he described as the front’s good relations with other factions inside the camp.

As for the accusations that the PFLP-GC is preparing for a military operation inside the camp, Jabr said: “There is absolutely no truth to these accusations and the aim is to discredit the front which has carried out and still is carrying out operations against the Israeli occupation.

“The breaking news story that was exaggerated in the media is [actually] that we are preparing maps and designs to build a gym, clinic and kindergarten on 700 square meters of property situated above the tunnel and owned by the front,” Jabr said.

According to Jabr, surveyors have been visiting the site to draw the maps before applying to the Lebanese Army for a permit to bring building materials into the camp. The surface of the tunnel is adjacent to the army’s sites located in the camp’s surrounding areas, Jabr said, adding that “the army is watchful of everything.”

Jabr added that these centers are needed in order to educate and train Palestinians so that they have better understanding of the struggle against Israel: “It is not enough that the person carrying a rifle knows how to shoot and hit. What’s important is gaining knowledge of the rifle’s target.”

Jabr also commented on rumors that the services provided by the Palestinian Armed Struggle Organization – the PLO’s military police which is responsible for maintaining law and order in the camp – will be replaced by a force linked to the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah.

“We don’t recognize the Palestinian Armed Struggle in the first place. We recognize the follow-up committee in charge of the camp which includes all the camp’s factions, whether nationalist or Islamist.”