The Fatah movement on Thursday began handing over its heavy and medium weapons in the Burj al-Barajneh refugee camp in Beirut to the Lebanese Army, in what officials described as the first stage of a broader disarmament process agreed between Lebanon and the Palestinian leadership.

Fatah commanders were informed of the order in the morning after a meeting with a Palestinian delegation led by Yasser Abbas, the son of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who arrived in Beirut earlier this week.

The move came as a surprise to many Fatah leaders and Palestinian officers, who had not expected such swift implementation. The process had originally been scheduled to start in mid-June but was abruptly frozen without explanation.

The handover coincided with an internal restructuring inside Fatah, including the dismissal of Ashraf Dabbour, the Palestinian Authority’s ambassador to Beirut, from his parallel role as deputy supervisor of the Lebanese file. The reshuffle was widely seen as targeting officials who opposed disarmament or objected to Abbas’s remarks during his May visit to Beirut, when he and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun declared in a joint statement their commitment to “exclusive State control over weapons” and insisted that “the era of arms outside the authority of the Lebanese State has ended.”

Ambassador Ramez Dimashkiyeh, head of the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee, said Thursday that “the first stage of handing over weapons from inside the Palestinian camps begins today in Burj al-Barajneh, where an initial batch will be delivered and placed in the custody of the Lebanese Army.” He described the transfer as “a first step that will be followed by additional deliveries in the coming weeks in Burj al-Barajneh and other camps.”

Dimashkiyeh said the process stems from the Lebanese-Palestinian summit of May 21, 2025, between Presidents Aoun and Abbas, which affirmed Lebanese sovereignty, the authority of the State, and the principle of exclusive control over weapons. It also follows the May 23 meeting of the Dialogue Committee chaired by Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, where Lebanese and Palestinian officials agreed on a clear mechanism and timetable for addressing the Palestinian weapons issue.

Palestinian sources said the agreement currently covers Fatah and other factions of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Hamas and allied groups have refused to surrender their weapons, and the deal reached in recent days does not include them. The exclusion has fueled resentment among many Fatah officials in Lebanon, the sources said.

A senior Fatah official told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that the move was “the execution of what Presidents Aoun and Abbas agreed upon: that weapons must be exclusively in the hands of the Lebanese State.” He said the process “will take place in phases and will eventually include all factions.”

But confusion was evident on Thursday when Sobhi Abu Arab, head of the Palestinian National Security Forces in Lebanon, said the weapons being turned over in Burj al-Barajneh had only entered the camp 48 hours earlier, were “illegitimate,” and did not belong to the factions. He insisted that the factions were not handing over their own arms.

Reports indicated that the weapons currently being surrendered belonged to the Palestinian embassy’s security unit, which was led by Shadi al-Far. Al-Far was arrested by Lebanese military intelligence on Wednesday evening on charges including arms trafficking and shootings.

On Thursday evening, Palestinian factions in Lebanon issued a statement denying reports that weapons were being surrendered in the camps.

“Some media outlets have reported claims about plans to hand over weapons from Palestinian camps, particularly Burj al-Barajneh. We, the Palestinian factions in Lebanon, categorically deny these claims, which are completely baseless,” the statement said.

It added that “what is happening in Burj al-Barajneh is an internal organizational matter specific to Fatah and has nothing to do with the issue of Palestinian weapons in the camps.”

The factions said they remained committed to the security and stability of the camps and their surroundings, to respecting Lebanese sovereignty and institutions, and to strengthening ties between Palestinians and Lebanese.

“Our weapons have always been, and will remain, tied to the right of return and the just Palestinian cause,” the statement concluded. “They will remain as long as the occupation persists on Palestinian land, and they will only be used in confronting the Zionist enemy until our people achieve their right to return, freedom, and the establishment of an independent state on their land.”