TYRE, Lebanon: The Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement called Thursday for the formation of “a unified political authority” in Lebanon to protect the refugee camps from the threat of sectarian strife as a result of the two-year bloody conflict in Syria.

The call was made during a large sit-in staged by various Palestinian factions and Lebanese parties at a memorial in the southern city of Tyre to show solidarity with thousands of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.

The sit-in was called by the Palestine Liberation Front to mark the ninth anniversary of the killing of its Secretary-General Mohammad Abbas, better known as Abu Abbas.

Abu Samer Moussa, a senior official of Islamic Jihad, praised the Palestinian prisoners who are “confronting the Zionist occupation of Palestine,” stressing the importance of their sacrifices and role in “standing up against the enemy.”

Addressing the sit-in, Moussa called for the “formation of an effective command framework for the Palestinian people in general, and the formation of a unified political authority in Lebanon in particular, to face dangers threatening the Palestinian people and confront all projects aimed at plunging the camps into sectarian strife for which some are promoting.”

He did not elaborate. The Palestinians living in the refugee camp of Yarmouk in Syria were split in their support for Syrian President Bashar Assad and armed rebel groups fighting to topple his regime. Thousands of Palestinian refugees in Syria have fled to Lebanon after fighting between pro- and anti-regime forces engulfed the Yarmouk camp.

He said the resistance was “the best option to defend holy places, stop settlements and liberate the prisoners from the enemy’s prisoners after facts had proved the futility of the negotiations which are revolving in a vicious circle.”

“The [Israeli] enemy will give in only under power,” he added.