Palestinian factions in Lebanon have started giving up their weapons as part of a national plan aimed at ending the presence of armed groups outside state control.
The process began on Saturday, according to Palestinian officials, with weapons being handed over from refugee camps across the country.
In the southern Ain al-Hilweh camp, which is the largest Palestinian settlement in Lebanon, five truckloads of arms were surrendered. Three more truckloads were delivered from the Beddawi camp in the north. Lebanese army vehicles were stationed around the camps to ensure order and prevent any outside interference as the handover took place.
The Beddawi camp, located near Tripoli, had previously come under Israeli strikes last year that killed a Hamas commander, his wife, and their two daughters, according to Palestinian accounts. While the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) has taken the lead in disarmament, groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which are not part of the PLO, have not indicated any intention to give up their weapons in Lebanon.
Lebanon is home to about 222,000 Palestinian refugees, based on figures from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). Most of them live in crowded refugee camps that operate outside the direct authority of the Lebanese state. Earlier this year, Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas reached an agreement with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun that weapons in these camps would gradually be handed to the army.
The handover process first began last month, when camps around Beirut and southern Lebanon surrendered weapons to the military. The disarmament plan comes as the Lebanese government seeks to ensure that only the army holds weapons across the country, especially along the border with Israel. The arrangement calls for the complete removal of weapons from the border area within three months, forming the first stage of a five-step plan.
By tradition, the Lebanese army does not enter Palestinian camps and has left internal security to Palestinian groups. However, with this new effort, Beirut is aiming to bring all armed groups under the authority of the state. Hezbollah has rejected the wider disarmament drive, but the government continues with its efforts to bring weapons under one command after the recent conflict with Israel weakened Hezbollah’s influence in the country.