Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas visited on Friday the Palestinian refugee camp of Shatila in Beirut, placing a wreath at the cemetery in the camp.

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas visited on Friday the Palestinian refugee camp of Shatila in Beirut, placing a wreath at the cemetery in the camp.

Shatila and the neighbouring Sabra camp in Beirut were the scene of a horrendous massacre in September 1982 in which the Israeli army, aided by treacherous militiamen, butchered between 800 and 2,000 Palestinians.

Abbas placed a wreath in the Shatila cemetery, where some of the martyrs of the massacre are buried and offered a prayer at the site.

A small crowd, including a number of youth members of the Fatah party Abbas heads, and a boy scout band welcomed the Palestinian president at the Martyrs Cemetery.

The crowd voiced hope that their calamity ends so that they can return to Palestine.

There are approximately 470,000 Palestinians living in 12 overcrowded camps in Lebanon in addition to an estimated number of 65,000 Palestinian refugees who have fled from Syria due to its ongoing crisis since mid-March 2011.

Abbas then moved to the Palestinian embassy where he met social delegations and the representatives of the different Palestinian factions.

Abbas stressed that any Palestinian intervention in the Lebanese local affairs must always be  banned and called all the Palestinian factions to participate in the democratic political process to fortify the Palestinian arena.

Abbas ends on Saturday his three-day trip in which he met Lebanese senior officials and underlined a number of stances that concern the Lebanese and the Palestinian interests.