More Palestinian groups in southern Lebanon hand their weapons over to army

Palestinian groups in three refugee camps in south Lebanon hand over heavy weapons to the Lebanese army today, under a disarmament deal reached earlier this year, say Lebanese and Palestinian authorities.

During a visit to Beirut in May, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun agreed that weapons in Lebanon’s Palestinian camps would be handed over to the Lebanese authorities. The implementation of the deal — part of Lebanese authorities’ decision to disarm all non-state groups — began last week as Abbas’s Fatah movement surrendered its weapons in south Beirut’s Burj al-Barajneh camp.

The official Lebanese-Palestinian dialogue committee says that “heavy weapons belonging to the factions of the Palestine Liberation Organization in the Rashidieh, Al-Bass and Burj al-Shemali camps were handed over to the Lebanese army.”

Abbas’s Fatah is the most prominent PLO faction. Palestinian terror groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which are allied to Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group, are not part of the organization. By longstanding convention, the Lebanese army stays out of the Palestinian camps — where Fatah, Hamas and other armed groups are present — and leaves the factions to handle security.

The statement says six truckloads of weapons were removed from Rashidieh, and one truck each from the other two locations, adding that the process will continue in the rest of Lebanon’s Palestinian camps.

Lebanon hosts about 222,000 Palestinian refugees, according to the United Nations agency UNRWA.