Israel will control all Gaza by end of offensive – DW – 05/21/2025

The Lebanese and Palestinian leaders agreed that Palestinian factions would not use Lebanon as a launching pad for attacks against Israel.

This announcement came during a meeting between President Michel Aoun and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas arrived in Beirut earlier in the day for a three-day visit to Lebanon, his first in seven years.

The joint statement said both sides have agreed that Palestinian camps in Lebanon aren’t “safe havens for extremist groups.” It added that “the Palestinian side confirms its commitment of not using Lebanese territories to launch any military operations.”

The agreement also mentions the disarmament of Palestinian refugee camps, as Lebanon seeks to exert authority over its entire territory.

In a joint statement, the Lebanese presidency said the two leaders share “the belief that the era of weapons outside the control of the Lebanese state has ended.”

The statement added that both leaders expressed commitment to the principle that arms should be exclusively “in the hands of the Lebanese state.”

According to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, 500,000 Palestinians are registered as refugees in Lebanon. Most of them are descendants of people who fled or were expelled from their land during the creation of Israel in 1948.

Some 222,000 Palestinians reside in overcrowded camps that are beyond the control of the Lebanese authorities. According to a longstanding convention, the Lebanese army stays out of the refugee camps and leaves security to the Palestinian factions.

In recent years, rival Palestinian factions, such as Abbas’s Fatah movement and the militant Hamas group, have clashed inside the camps, inflicting casualties and affecting nearby areas. 

It wasn’t immediately clear how the weapons would be removed from the camps.