Report: Handover of Palestinian arms to begin from south Lebanon

The major developments in the region, especially the Israeli-Iranian war, have reshuffled all cards in Lebanon and frozen the discussion of a number of files, most notably the handover of Palestinian weapons present in refugee camps, a process that was supposed to begin Monday from Beirut’s camps, a media report said.

Official sources told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper that the relevant Palestinian sides in Lebanon are yet to be informed of any instructions, whether from the leadership in Ramallah or from Lebanese security agencies, regarding the handover of weapons present in any camp during the coming days.

“This does not mean freezing the file, but rather waiting for resolving some internal Palestinian issues that are being addressed,” the sources said.

“The factions requested a grace period before the start of the handover of weapons from Beirut’s camps, and it has been agreed to begin from the South’s camps that fall within U.N. Resolution 1701’s area of operations,” the sources added.

“The handover will begin from the Tyre region where the al-Bass camp is located and the al-Rashidiyeh and al-Burj al-Shamali camps will follow,” the sources explained, noting that “execution will take place over stages and without specific deadlines.”

And according to Lebanese sources, Azzam al-Ahmad, the Fatah Movement official in charge of the Lebanese file, will return to Lebanon over the next days at the head of a security delegation to continue discussed the handover mechanisms and the rest of the details.

Al-Ahmad had spent days in Lebanon prior to Eid al-Adha in a bid to resolve some disputes within the Fatah Movement over this file. He also held talks with Lebanese security agencies and state authorities.