Some armed Palestinian teams in Lebanese refugee camps started handing over their weapons to the authorities on Thursday after reaching a deal earlier this yr, with Washington hailing the transfer as a “historic step”.
The efforts at disarmament got here after the Lebanese authorities, beneath US stress, tasked the military with formulating a plan to additionally disarm the militant group Hezbollah by the top of the yr.
The Lebanese military took into its custody a variety of weapons within the Burj al-Barajneh refugee camp in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
An AFP photographer noticed a truck full of weapons and ammunition transported from the camp to a close-by parking zone, the place Lebanese military automobiles and personnel had been deployed to examine the cargo.
“Right this moment marks the start of the primary section of the method of handing over weapons from contained in the Palestinian camps,” Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee chairman Ramez Dimashkieh had stated in an earlier assertion.
US envoy Tom Barrack supplied his congratulations on the event, saying it marked “a historic step towards unity and stability, displaying true dedication to peace and cooperation”.
Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam additionally welcomed the transfer, saying that the “course of can be accomplished with the handover of extra batches within the coming weeks from Burj al-Barajneh and different camps”, in response to an announcement from his workplace.
A Palestinian safety official had informed AFP on situation of anonymity that “Fatah will start handing over its weapons in Burj al-Barajneh camp inside the framework of the coordination with the Lebanese military”.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, who heads the Fatah motion, visited Beirut in Could and reached an settlement with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun that each one arms in Palestinian camps can be surrendered to the state.
A Palestinian safety supply at Burj al-Barajneh camp stated “Fatah’s initiative in starting at hand over weapons is symbolic, and got here on account of an settlement between Aoun and the Palestinian president’s son, Yasser Abbas, who’s at the moment visiting Beirut”.
It goals to “encourage the remaining (Palestinian armed) factions to take the identical step”, the supply stated, noting that the opposite influential factions within the camp “haven’t but determined at hand over their weapons”.
The Palestinian Authority doesn’t train energy over the opposite factions within the camps, most notably Hamas.
– ‘Illegitimate weapons’ –
Lebanon has come beneath heavy US stress to disarm Hamas’s ally Hezbollah after the Iran-backed Lebanese motion was dealt an enormous blow throughout its battle with Israel final yr.
That battle was the end result of a yr of hostilities launched by Hezbollah in help of Hamas after the Palestinian group’s October 2023 assault on Israel that sparked the Gaza battle.
Lebanon hosts about 222,000 Palestinian refugees, in response to the United Nations company UNRWA, with many residing in overcrowded camps outdoors of the state’s management.
The Ain al-Hilweh camp close to the southern metropolis of Sidon, as an example, is the biggest within the nation and homes people needed by the Lebanese authorities.
The handover of weapons had been anticipated to start in mid-June, however in an interview with Saudi-owned broadcaster Al Arabiya final week, Aoun attributed the delay to the Iran-Israel battle that broke out that month, in addition to to “inside concerns inside the Palestinian Authority”.
Badie al-Habet, a member of the Fatah management in Beirut, informed AFP that Thursday would see the “turning over of illegitimate weapons within the fingers of illegitimate people”.
The weapons held by Palestinian safety personnel within the refugee camps, nonetheless, weren’t included within the handover, he added.
Palestinian armed factions together with Hamas have repeatedly fired at Israel from Lebanon because the begin of the Gaza battle and the following battle between Israel and Hezbollah, which a November ceasefire sought to finish.
The ceasefire stipulated that solely the Lebanese army would bear arms and that each one forces would withdraw from the nation’s south, excluding the military and UN peacekeepers.
Israel has nonetheless continued to strike Lebanon commonly, and its troops nonetheless maintain 5 positions within the south that it deems strategic.
Hezbollah, in the meantime, has stated it can resist efforts to disarm it.