Violent clashes in the Burj al-Barajneh camp in Beirut as residents urge the army to intervene

The Burj al-Barajneh camp for Palestinian refugees in Beirut witnessed violent clashes today, Wednesday, during which automatic weapons, rocket shells, RPGs, and grenades were used.


Eyewitnesses reported that residents appealed to the Lebanese army to intervene and stop the tensions, which erupted days after the army announced the completion of the second phase of the weapon retrieval process from the Palestinian camps.

The army leadership announced on August 29 that it had received quantities of weapons from the camp in coordination with Palestinian authorities, including various types of weapons, shells, and ammunition, as part of the implementation of the decisions made at the Lebanese-Palestinian summit held on May 21 between Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, which emphasized Lebanon's sovereignty and the exclusivity of weapons in the hands of the state.

The Burj al-Barajneh camp is one of the 12 most prominent Palestinian camps in Lebanon, housing approximately 300,000 Palestinian refugees according to actual estimates, although records from UNRWA indicate about 489,000 registered individuals.

The retrieval of weapons from Burj al-Barajneh comes as the first step in a three-phase plan, which will later include the al-Bass camp in Tyre, then the al-Baddawi camp in northern Lebanon, and the Rashidiya camp in the south.