Lebanese government source says state will begin disarming Palestinian refugee camps in June

The disarmament of Palestinian camps in Lebanon will begin next month based on an accord with visiting Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, a Lebanese government official tells AFP.

The Lebanese and Palestinian sides have agreed “on starting an implementation plan to remove weapons from the camps, beginning mid-June in the Beirut camps, and other camps will follow,” the source tells AFP, requesting anonymity as they are not authorized to brief the media.

Earlier this week, a member of Abbas’s delegation to Beirut told AFP that the issue of extending state authority to the Palestinian refugee camps would be discussed.

By longstanding convention, Lebanon’s army stays out of the Palestinian camps — where Abbas’s Fatah movement, the Hamas terror group, and other armed groups are present — and leaves the factions to handle security.