BEIRUT/ANKARA

Lebanon on Saturday launched the fourth stage of its plan to collect weapons from Palestinian refugee camps, according to local media reports.

The army began receiving arms from the Beddawi camp in northern Lebanon and Ain al-Hilweh camp near the southern city of Sidon, the An-Nahar daily reported. Security was tightened around the camps during the process.

The initiative follows earlier stages during which the army collected weapons from several camps: Burj al-Barajneh in Beirut’s southern suburbs on Aug. 21; Rashidieh, Al-Buss, and Burj al-Shamali near Tyre on Aug. 28; and Burj al-Barajneh, Mar Elias, and Shatila on Aug. 29.

Last month, Lebanon’s Cabinet decided to restrict all arms, including those held by Hezbollah, to the state. The army was tasked with drafting a plan to achieve this by the end of August and to implement it before the close of 2025.

However, Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Qassem said the group would not relinquish its weapons unless Israel withdrew from occupied Lebanese territory, halted its aggression, released prisoners, and reconstruction began.

A ceasefire was reached in November 2024, following months of cross-border warfare between Israel and Hezbollah, and a full-scale war in September 2024.

Under the truce, Israel was supposed to fully withdraw from southern Lebanon by January, but it only partially pulled out troops and maintains a military presence at five border outposts.

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 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.