Lebanon said that some Palestinian factions began handing over weapons held in a refugee camp on the outskirts of Beirut to the Lebanese army Thursday, an initial step in implementing a plan officials announced three months earlier for removing arms from the camps.
It was a modest first step. One pickup left the Burj al-Barajneh refugee camp in Beirut’s southern suburbs loaded with light weapons packed in bags. The butts of machine guns could be seen protruding from some of the sacks.
An AFP photographer saw a truck filled with weapons and ammunition transported from the camp to a nearby parking lot, where Lebanese army vehicles and personnel were deployed to inspect the cargo.
The step of removing weapons from the camps was seen as a precursor to the much more difficult step of disarming Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah, which last year fought a bruising war with Israel that ended in a ceasefire in November. Hezbollah has been under domestic and international pressure since then to give up its remaining arsenal, which it has so far refused to do.
The decision to remove weapons from the Palestinian camps was announced in May during a visit by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to Lebanon, during which he and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun announced that arms would be consolidated under the authority of the Lebanese government.
It was unclear if factions other than Abbas’s Fatah movement would abide by the decision.
Representatives of Hamas and the allied Palestinian Islamic Jihad did not respond to requests for comment.
A spokesperson for Hamas sent a statement signed by “the Palestinian Factions in Lebanon” that called Thursday’s handover of weapons “an internal organizational matter within the Fatah movement” that “has no connection, near or far, to the issue of Palestinian weapons in the camps.”
It added, “Our weapons have always been and will always be linked to the right of return and the just Palestinian cause and will remain so as long as the occupation remains on Palestinian soil.”
Some officials with Palestinian factions also said only “illegal” weapons would be handed over, not those belonging to organized factions. They also said personal light weapons would not be included.
Badih al-Habet, a spokesperson for Fatah in Beirut, told reporters that Aoun had acknowledged that “personal weapons are part of Arab and national culture,” and that Thursday would see the “turning over of illegitimate weapons in the hands of illegitimate individuals.”
Ramez Dimashkieh, head of the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee, a government body that serves as an interlocutor between Palestinian refugees and officials, said in a statement that the handover “will be the first step, with further batches to be delivered in the coming weeks from Burj al-Barajneh camp and the rest of the camps,” the statement said.
Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a spokesperson for Abbas, said in a statement that weapons were also handed over Thursday at al-Bass camp in southern Lebanon and would continue in other camps in implementation of the agreement between Abbas and the Lebanese government.
US envoy Tom Barrack congratulated the Lebanese government and Fatah “for their agreement on voluntary disarmament in Beirut camps.”
In a post on X, he called it “a historic step toward unity and stability, showing true commitment to peace and cooperation.”
Implementation of the plan for the Palestinian camps was delayed amid disagreements among and within the various Palestinian factions operating in Lebanon, which include Abbas’ Fatah movement, the rival Hamas terror group and a range of other Islamist and leftist organizations, over the mechanism for handing over the weapons.
Hamas and other armed factions were involved in firing at Israel from Lebanon with the start of the Gaza war and the ensuing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which a November ceasefire sought to end.
The ceasefire stipulated that only the Lebanese military would bear arms and that all forces would withdraw from the country’s south, with the exception of the army and UN peacekeepers.
Israel has continued to strike Lebanon in cases where it sees Hezbollah violating the ceasefire, and its troops still hold five positions in the south that it deems strategic for its defense.
Earlier this week, Barrack said following Beirut’s commitment to disarm Hezbollah, it was Israel’s turn to make good on its side of the ceasefire, apparently referring to the retreat of troops back into Israel.
US network Axios reported Thursday that US officials had asked Israel to temporarily cut back on strikes in Lebanon deemed “non-urgent” and pull troops from one border point, as a show of good faith in support of the Lebanese effort.
Though officials doubt Beirut is strong enough to forcibly disarm Hezbollah, they hope Israel’s move will help give it the needed maneuverability to seize the terror group’s weapons.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.