By Wassim Samih Seifeddine and Lina Altawell
BEIRUT/ISTANBUL (AA) – The Lebanese army secured a fifth batch of heavy weapons from the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp near Sidon in southern Lebanon, a Palestinian official said Tuesday.
Abdel Hadi al-Asadi, a spokesman for the Palestinian National Security Forces in Lebanon, said the arms handover was in line with a joint statement issued by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Lebanese counterpart, Joseph Aoun, in May and the work of a joint Lebanese-Palestinian committee tasked with overseeing camp conditions and improving living standards.
He said the handover reflects a shared commitment to strengthening security, reinforcing stability and preserving fraternal relations between the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples.
In August, the Lebanese government decided to restrict all weapons, including those held by Hezbollah, to state authority and tasked the army with drafting and implementing a plan by the end of 2025. Hezbollah rejected the plan and stressed that it will retain its arms until Israel withdraws from five occupied border outposts in the south.
As part of the weapons handover process, the Lebanese army received a fourth batch of weapons from Ain al-Hilweh and Beddawi camps on Sept. 13, following earlier transfers from several other Palestinian camps in August.
Lebanon hosts more than 493,000 Palestinian refugees, most of whom live under difficult conditions in camps administered by Palestinian factions under informal understandings stemming from the 1969 Cairo Agreement.
More than half of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon reside in 12 camps officially recognized by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA). The Lebanese army and security forces do not enter these camps, but impose strict measures around them.