About 15,000 Palestinians fled the crowded Nahr el-Bared refugee camp (about 40,000 refugees) on Wednesday after a fragile truce stopped the fighting between the Lebanese army and Fatah al-Islam, a Sunni Islamist militant group.

The al Qaeda-inspired militants took up residence in the camp last year with the declared intention of fighting a "life or death battle."
About 22 militants, 32 soldiers and 27 civilians have been killed in the fighting.
The Lebanese army reinforced its positions around the camp on Wednesday.

The cease-fire begun at sunset and with the guns silenced thousands of refugees fled the camp choking the road out of the Nahr al-Bared camp with vehicles.
The refugees were trapped inside the camp with no water, electricity and dwindling supplies of food since Sunday when the fighting begun.

There’s a lot of destruction and people are going hungry," said 24-year-old Ahmed Arif, who left the camp with his family. "The food is running out, the water tanks have been shot out, and there are many people needing immediate help but no one can help them."

It is unclear for how long the truce will hold and the allowing of the civilians to leave the camp may be followed by a major showdown. The Lebanese government expressed its intention of eliminating the militant Fatah al-Islam.

Although the Lebanese army has said its troops were trying to hit only militant positions some refugees said that things are in fact a bit different.
"They (army) are not attacking Fatah Islam. They are attacking people," said 23-year-old Hussein Wehbe, a refugee who planned to stay inside the camp.

A U.N. convoy came under fire as its workers tried to deliver food and water to residents. Officials said some who approached the convoy seeking supplies were wounded or killed. It is not who was the attacker but the Lebanese army denied it had shelled the trucks.

This is Lebanon's worst internal fighting since the 1975-1990 civil war.

Fatah al-Islam a militia thought to be linked to Al Qaeda, emerged in 2006 when it split from Fatah al-Intifada (Fatah Uprising), a Syrian-backed Palestinian group based in Lebanon.

Many Arab governments dealt with Sunni Islamist militants and promised military assistance to the Beirut government.
The U.S. is also considering a request from Beirut for more military assistance.