Lebanese army reclaims Palestinian sites in Bekaa that served Syrian regime and Hezbollah

BEIRUT: On Saturday, the Lebanese army took control of several strategic sites previously held by Palestinian factions.

The factions had been affiliated with Syrian president Bashar Assad’s regime, which fell 13 days ago, and subsequently with Hezbollah, and had posed a threat to Lebanon’s eastern sector.

The army took over the Sultan Yaacoub site in western Bekaa from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the General Command and the Halwa camp from Fatah Al-Intifada, and the Hechmech site, located between Qousaya and Deir El Ghazal in central Bekaa, from both factions.

Army command said the forces took over the sites in addition to “seizing quantities of weapons and ammunition and military gear.”

It added that the army “continues to take control of positions previously occupied by Palestinian groups within Lebanon as part of efforts to maintain security and stability and enforce state authority in various areas.”

The camps had remained outside of the Lebanese state’s control for around 40 years, refusing to surrender their weapons under the 1989 Taif Agreement, which stated that all weapons should be surrendered to the Lebanese State, except for firearms in Palestinian camps in Lebanon, which were considered Syrian-protected areas.

Hisham Debsi, director of the independent Palestinian center Tatweer for Strategic Studies and Human Development, told Arab News: “The Syrian regime had launched 13 Palestinian organizations, forming its own system that subsequently served its own policies and those of Hezbollah. With the collapse of Hezbollah, these organizations, which are located in Bekaa, became unprotected, and with the collapse of the Assad regime, the last shield for these organizations — who can be called mercenaries — has fallen.

“They were a disgrace to the Palestinian cause because they would speak in its name when, in fact, they were tools used by the Syrian regime and Hezbollah,” he continued. 
These Palestinian factions aimed to “marginalize Fatah and abolish independent Palestinian decision-making,” said Debsi, adding that the Lebanese army taking control of these sites restored “normalcy.”

Regarding the fate of Palestinian militants affiliated with these factions, he said: “As individuals, if they have families in the Lebanese camps, they can join them. However, most of them are Palestinian refugees from Syria, and they can go wherever they wish in Syria.”

Debsi claimed that most Palestinian refugees who fled from Syria to Lebanon during the 2011 protests had since left for Europe, with only a small number remaining in Lebanon’s camps.

In the recent conflict in Lebanon, Israel did not directly target sites associated with Palestinian factions, which were bombarded in the 2006 war. For years, reports have alleged that these sites housed weaponry, but there has never been concrete evidence to support such claims.

In line with security measures enforcing UN Resolution 1701, the Lebanese army reported on Saturday that its intelligence unit had arrested six individuals and seized weapons during raids on three Palestinian refugee camps in the Bekaa Valley.

In southern Lebanon, invading Israeli forces continued their violations of the ceasefire agreement, carrying out further demolition operations in the town of Naqoura. They also set up a permanent military checkpoint in place of a Lebanese army post near the town’s fishing harbor and razed citrus groves near the UNIFIL headquarters.

An Israeli drone flew at low altitude over the border, an area that residents of the south are prohibited from approaching or traversing.

In the southern suburb of Beirut, the General Directorate of Civil Defense released a statement saying that search and rescue teams had successfully recovered the bodies of four victims from the rubble of the Ayoub building in the Haret Hreik area, which was hit by Israeli airstrikes targeting the residence of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah on Sept. 27.

The bodies will undergo DNA testing to confirm their identities, along with three other bodies discovered on Friday in the same area, the statement added.