Gemayel: Palestinian Arms Must be Controlled, State's Sovereignty Uncompromising

Kataeb party leader MP Sami Gemayel emphasized on Saturday that Palestinian arms spread out inside the refugee camps threaten Lebanon's sovereignty.

“The Lebanese government must deal with the file of Palestinian armament inside the refugee camps as an issue of sovereignty not subject to any form of bargain or compromise,” Gemayel told al-Joumhouria daily in an interview.

“What is needed is a clear and strict decision to impose the Lebanese State's sovereignty in the camps and to apply Lebanese laws on all those residing on Lebanon's territory without any exception,” stressed Gemayel.

The MP expressed astonishment at “the silence of related officials and the government's and political authority's inaction to confront the clashes in Ain el-Hilweh and Bourj al-Barajneh, although Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has called on Lebanon's authority during his recent visit to Beirut to take the initiative and boost its sovereignty inside the camps.”

“The Lebanese state has had enough of chaos scenes in Palestinian camps that only remind the Lebanese of black historical eras of the State's incapability to protect and defend its sovereignty from those residing on its very land,” he concluded.

Lebanon has witnessed a series of armed clashes in Palestinian refugees camps the most recent was yesterday in Bourj al-Barajneh in south Beirut, and in the southern Ain el-Hilweh the week before.

Heavy armed clashes erupted in and around the Palestinian refugee camp of Bourj al-Barajneh, one of the capital's crowded southern suburbs, between the Lebanese Jaafar family and the al-Qaffas Palestinian family.

Media reports said at least three people were killed and several others wounded.

In similar incidents, deadly armed clashes between the Fatah Movement and Islamist groups rocked Ain el-Hilweh for almost a week in February left one civilian dead and six others injured.

By long-standing convention, Lebanon's army does not enter Palestinian refugee camps, where security is managed by joint committees of Palestinian factions.

In recent years, tensions have risen between Fatah and the Jund al-Sham Islamist group in the camp.

The UN's Palestinian refugee agency said on Tuesday it had halted all services in the camp for the second day because of the unrest.

Ain al-Hilweh is an impoverished, overcrowded camp near the coastal city of Sidon, and is home to some 61,000 Palestinians, including 6,000 who have fled the war in Syria.