Lebanese troops killed three protesters after firing on Palestinian civilians demanding to return to their homes at a besieged refugee camp.
Witnesses said the soldiers opened fire first into the air as hundreds of refugees tried to get through an army checkpoint and head to Nahr al-Bared camp, scene of nearly six weeks of fighting between the army and Fatah al-Islam militants.
When the crowd did not disperse and attacked soldiers with stones and sticks, the troops fired automatic rifles at the protest inflicting the casualties. Fifty people were also wounded.
The witnesses said the refugees from Nahr al-Bared had started to march from the nearby Beddawi camp, where they had sought refuge after the battles began on May 20th.
Lebanese Defence Minister Elias al-Murr has claimed victory and an end to major combat against Fatah al-Islam, but the army says Nahr al-Bared remains a closed military zone as it tries to force the militants there to surrender.
Security forces are barred from entering Lebanon's 12 Palestinian refugee camps by a 1969 Arab agreement.
Much of the camp, originally home to 40,000 refugees, has been destroyed, and mines and booby traps litter its buildings and alleys