[Order Michael Finch’s new book, A Time to Stand: HERE. Prof. Jason Hill calls it “an aesthetic and political tour de force.”]
The government of Lebanon, headed by President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, is determined to disarm all “non-state” actors in Lebanon, in order that the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) will be the only armed force in the country. Before taking on Hezbollah directly, the LAF has been seizing weapons belonging to the PLO forces inside the Palestinian camps. More on this disarmament effort can be found here: “LAF begins new stage of Palestinian disarmament, diverts five trucks of weapons – report,” Jerusalem Post, September 13, 2025:
The Lebanese army is set to carry out the fourth stage of disarming Palestinian camps in the country on Saturday, according to Asharq Al-Awsat.
The military reportedly plans to start by disarming camps in Beddawi in northern Lebanon. After spending three days working to remove weapons there, the military then plans to move to Ain al-Hilweh camp in the south.
Hezbollah-affiliated network Al-Mayadeen reported that five trucks loaded with weapons for the PLO, including missiles, were transferred to the Lebanese army from Ain al-Hilweh. Three trucks with weapons were transferred from the Al-Baddawi camp.
Apparently these weapons were surrendered without a fight by the PLO operatives in both the Al-Baddawi and Ain al-Hilweh camps. The PLO now knows that the LAF has grown much stronger, thanks to an infusion of American weaponry, and the Aoun government has made clear its determination to finally disarm all non-state actors in the country, beginning with the PLO fighters in the camps. After years of tolerating armed groups, including the PLO, Hamas, the PFLP and, especially, the most powerful of them, Hezbollah, the government of Lebanon has decided to take them on, one by one, disarming them peacefully if possible, and by violence if necessary. It has begun by seizing truckloads of weapons belonging to the PLO in Al-Baddawi and Ain al-HIlweh camps.
Ambassador Ramez Dimechkie, head of the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee, said the decision is “clear and firm in asserting the authority of the state over all Lebanese territories. The camps are not outside this framework.”
This comes after the Pentagon approved a security assistance package for Lebanon with an estimated value of $14.2 million….
Since the. beginning of the year, the Americans have sent more than a hundred million dollars’ worth of weaponry to the LAF, to strengthen it to the point where it may be able to take on Hezbollah. Hezbollah, after all, has now been battered by the IDF, and has never been weaker.. The terror group’s once-huge arsenal of 150,000 missiles and rockets has been reduced by 80-90%, thanks to relentless Israeli airstrikes. Its leaders, including Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine, have been killed. So have most of its senior commanders. More than 3,000 Hezbollah combatants have been so severely wounded in the “exploding pagers” operation carried out by Mossad that they are now unable to fight. The LAF will take on the task of disarming Hezbollah in due time, but right now the LAF’s effort is directed at seizing the weaponry held by the PLO in the refugee camps.
The competent Palestinian authorities in Lebanon handed over the second batch of PLO weapons located in the Palestinian camps in Lebanon, namely the Rashidieh, Al-Bass, and Burj al-Shamali camps, to the Lebanese army as a trust, on Thursday,” the report quoted Palestinian Authority presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh as saying. “The handover process will be completed to the remaining camps successively.
So far, so good. The Lebanese government is no longer overawed by the terror groups, but is determined to strip them of their weapons. It has already begun by tackling the PLO in their strongholds of the refugee”camps. Apparently, the PLO operatives did not put up a fight either in Al Baddawi or in Al Ain-Hilweh, but meekly handed over their weapons to the LAF. A second batch of PLO weapons located in the Rashidieh, Al-Bass, and Burj al-Shamali camps, has now also been seized by the Lebanese Armed Forces. Every successful operation of this type strengthens the resolve of the Lebanese government to expand its disarmament of terror groups to the one that really matters — Hezbollah.
Under a November 2024 ceasefire agreement with Israel, the Lebanese government is committed to disarming Hezbollah, with initial efforts focusing on the area south of the Litani River. It is now almost a year later, and the LAF has still not tried to disarm Hezbollah as it promised. It is the IDF that is keeping Hezbollah in check as the terror group tries to hold onto outposts south of he Litani River. But the success of the LAF’s disarmament of the PLO in the camps may give the Lebanese forces the confidence they need to start taking on Hezbollah directly. Hezbollah, after all, has never been so weak, nor the Lebanese Armed Forces so strong.
