Lebanon has begun the planned disarmament of Palestinian factions in refugee camps, part of a wider effort to establish a state monopoly on arms.
The planned disarmament began with the handover of weapons on Thursday from the Burj al-Barajneh camp in Beirut to the Lebanese army, the Lebanese prime minister’s office said.
A pickup carrying machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and sacks of side arms left the camp and paused at a parking lot for inspection, agencies reported on Thursday.
The highly sensitive process was announced in May by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and his Lebanese counterpart, Joseph Aoun . The plan is in line with the government’s decision to limit the bearing of arms to the country’s national army by the end of the year.
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While Mr Abbas could commit Fatah, which he leads, to the process, he could not compel Hamas and Islamic Jihad to comply with the plan.
A Hamas spokesman representing other Palestinian factions called the handover “an internal matter within the Fatah movement [which] has no connection, near or far, to the issue of Palestinian weapons in the camps”.
Palestinian factions armed due to internal fighting within the camps and attacks by Israel and Lebanese Christian militias backed by Israel.
The deadliest such attack was the September 1982 massacre of 1,300-3,500 Palestinians and poor Lebanese Shias at the Sabra-Chatila camps in east Beirut by right-wing Christian Phalangist fighters.
In February 1983 an independent commission headed by Irish diplomat and United Nations deputy chief Sean MacBride blamed Israel’s army, which had invaded Lebanon in mid-1982 and was in control of the camps at the time of the massacre.
Lebanon’s Shia-aligned Hizbullah militant movement also rejects disarmament, saying it is being carried out under pressure from the United States and Israel.
Hizbullah leader Naim Qassem accused the government of “handing” the country to Israel and said the movement would retain its weapons.
Hizbullah’s armed wing has, however, been seriously weakened after Israel waged full-scale war on Lebanon in response to Hizbullah missiles fired into Israel in support of the war on Gaza following the attack by Hamas on October 7th, 2023.
When the war on Lebanon ended in last November’s truce, more than 4,000 Lebanese had been killed and 17,000 wounded. The country’s southern towns and villages were devastated.
The United States has asked Israel to reduce military strikes in Lebanon in response to Beirut’s call for the disarmament of Hizbullah.
Despite the demand for full Israeli withdrawal under the ceasefire, its army has continued to occupy five border outposts in Lebanon and has mounted near daily attacks on Lebanon, claiming Hizbullah is the target.
Dozens of Lebanese soldiers and civilians have been killed in these attacks.
Hizbullah has been blamed by many Lebanese for the heavy toll. In 2000 the movement was celebrated in Lebanon and the Arab world for its 18-year campaign to drive Israeli forces from southern Lebanon. This was the first time an Arab armed force compelled Israel to evacuate occupied territory.
