2025 sees breakthrough in Lebanese efforts to collect Palestinian weapons

Report by Edmond Sassine, English adaptation by Mariella Succar

2025 marked a long path toward ending the issue of Palestinian weapons outside state control in Lebanon — one of the country’s most complex and longstanding challenges, shaped by decades of internal and regional balances.

The May 21, 2025 Beirut summit between Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas set the political framework to begin addressing the presence of Palestinian weapons both inside and outside the camps.

The Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee, together with the Lebanese Army, was tasked with coordinating and implementing the process. 

Under the Lebanese Army’s plan to centralize weapons, Palestinian arms outside state authority became a primary target, as confirmed by a government decision.

Against the backdrop of Lebanese political and security developments, and following the collapse of the Syrian regime, the Lebanese Army successfully resolved the issue of Palestinian weapons outside the camps and outside state control — notably in Naameh and Kfar Zabad — without clashes. 

The Dialogue Committee and the Army then advanced through five stages to collect arms inside Palestinian camps.

The five stages of Palestinian arms collection in 2025 began in Beirut camps, particularly in Borj El Brajneh, with the surrender of light and medium weapons belonging to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). 

The second stage extended to Tyre camps, including Rashidieh, Al-Buss, and Borj El Chmali. 

Subsequent stages included new batches from Beirut, Beddawi and Lebanon’s largest camp, Ain al-Hilweh, where heavy and medium weapons were recently handed over.

Despite the progress and the Dialogue Committee’s confirmation that these weapons have become a burden rather than protection, major challenges remain for 2026. 

The collection effort has so far been limited to the PLO, with Hamas and Islamic Jihad yet to take any practical steps.

Sources within the Dialogue Committee called on Palestinian factions that have previously pledged to respect Lebanese state authority to move from declared commitments to practical implementation. 

Respecting sovereignty, they emphasized, cannot be symbolic or selective; it requires clear compliance with state decisions and the immediate surrender of weapons without conditions or pretexts, in direct coordination with the Lebanese Army — following the example set by the PLO.

The process of collecting Palestinian weapons, which will continue into 2026, is paralleled by efforts to affirm the economic and social rights of refugees without conditionality.