AIN AL-HILWEH, Lebanon: Palestinian factions handed over weapons from Lebanon’s largest refugee camp on Saturday, a Palestinian official said, as part of a push by the government to disarm non-state groups.
Abdel Hadi Al-Asadi, of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), said the umbrella group conducted “the operation of delivering new batches of weapons.”
The Lebanese army confirmed that it received “five truckloads of weapons from the Ain Al-Hilweh camp in Sidon,” the largest in Lebanon, and “three trucks from the Beddawi camp in Tripoli.”
“The delivery included various types of weapons, shells, and ammunition,” the army said in a statement.
An AFP journalist near Ain Al-Hilweh reported Lebanese army vehicles posted around the camp, preventing anyone from approaching.
The densely-populated Beddawi camp, near the northern city of Tripoli, was hit last year by Israeli strikes that killed a Hamas commander, his wife and two daughters, according to the Palestinian militant group.
In Beddawi, an AFP journalist saw three covered trucks leaving the camp, with Lebanese army vehicles waiting for them outside.
Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad, both not part of the PLO which has begun handing over weapons, have not announced plans to disarm in Lebanon.
Lebanon hosts about 222,000 Palestinian refugees, according to the United Nations agency UNRWA, with many living in overcrowded camps outside of the state’s control.
During a visit to Beirut in May, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas agreed with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun that weapons in Lebanon’s Palestinian refugee camps would be handed over to the Lebanese authorities.
The process began last month, when the army received weapons from camps around Beirut and southern Lebanon.
During a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah that largely ended with a November ceasefire, Palestinian groups including Hamas claimed rocket fire toward Israel.
The Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee, a body affiliated with the Lebanese prime minister’s office that is overseeing the arms transfer process, announced in a statement that it is continuing its “meetings with various Palestinian factions, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad.”
It said the discussions were part of its “commitment to extending its sovereignty over all its territory.”
By longstanding convention, the Lebanese army stays out of the Palestinian camps and leaves Palestinian factions to handle security.
Lebanon’s disarmament push has been rejected by Hezbollah, which was the country’s most powerful political force before being severely weakened by the war with Israel.
Beirut’s plan entails the complete disarmament of the border area with Israel within three months, in the first of five phases to monopolize weapons with the army, Lebanon’s Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi told AFP last week.