Palestinian camps in Lebanon to start disarming

Armed and masked men attend the funeral of two militants from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), reportedly killed in southern Lebanon in fighting against the Israeli army, in Ain el Helweh refugee camp near Sidon on November 1, 2024. (FILE/AFP)

• Armed Palestinian groups in Lebanese refugee camps will start handing over their weapons to the authorities on Thursday, a joint committee said, following deal reached in May
• Lebanese government has also tasked army to formulate plan to disarm Hezbollah

BEIRUT: Armed Palestinian groups in refugee camps in Lebanon will start handing over their weapons to the authorities on Thursday, a joint committee said, following a deal reached in May.
The announcement comes after the Lebanese government also tasked the army with formulating a plan to disarm the militant group Hezbollah by the end of the year.
“Today marks the beginning of the first phase of the process of handing over weapons from inside the Palestinian camps,” Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee chairman Ramez Dimashkieh said in a statement.
The process would begin with the Burj Al-Barajneh camp in Beirut, where an initial batch of weapons would be placed in the custody of the Lebanese army, Dimashkieh added.
An AFP photojournalist saw dozens of fighters in military fatigues holding Kalashnikov rifles as crowds gathered in front of the Beirut headquarters of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s Fatah movement.
A Palestinian security official told AFP on condition of anonymity that “Fatah will begin handing over its weapons in Burj Al-Barajneh camp within the framework of the coordination with the Lebanese army.”
Abbas visited Beirut in May and reached an agreement with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun that all arms in Palestinian camps would be surrendered to the state.
A Palestinian security source at Burj Al-Barajneh camp said “Fatah’s initiative in beginning to hand over weapons is symbolic, and came as a result of an agreement between Aoun and the Palestinian president’s son, Yasser Abbas, who is currently visiting Beirut.”
It aims to “encourage the remaining (Palestinian armed) factions to take the same step,” the source said, noting that the other influential factions in the camp “have not yet decided to hand over their weapons.”
The Palestinian Authority does not exercise power over the remaining factions in the camps, most notably Hamas.
Lebanon has come under heavy US pressure to disarm Hamas’s ally Hezbollah after the Iran-backed Lebanese movement was dealt a massive blow during its war with Israel last year.
That conflict was the culmination of a year of hostilities launched by Hezbollah in support of Hamas after the Palestinian group’s October 2023 attack on Israel that sparked the Gaza war.
Lebanon hosts about 222,000 Palestinian refugees, according to the United Nations agency UNRWA, with many living in overcrowded camps outside of the state’s control.