On May 21, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas visited Lebanon. He met with President Joseph Aoun and Speaker Nabih Berri to talk about one thing: the future of Palestinian camps and whether the armed groups inside them should finally be disarmed.
It’s not a new issue. In fact, it goes back decades. To understand where things stand today, you need to go back to one key turning point: the infamous 1969 Cairo Agreement.
1. Why are there Palestinian camps in Lebanon?
After the creation of Israel in 1948, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forced to flee. Many ended up in Lebanon. More came after the 1967 Six-Day War. And then again in the early 1970s, after the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) was kicked out of Jordan.
Twelve Palestinian refugee camps are officially recognized in Lebanon by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. They were supposed to be temporary. Instead, they became permanent, overcrowded spaces, often lacking basic infrastructure and outside the control of the Lebanese state.
2. What is the Cairo Agreement, and why does it matter?
By the late sixties, Lebanon had become a base for Palestinian guerrilla fighters, or fedayeen, launching attacks on Israel from southern Lebanon. Israel responded with airstrikes and raids, including one in 1968 that destroyed 13 civilian planes at Beirut Airport.
At home, things were tense. The Lebanese Army clashed with the fedayeen as pressure was mounting from Arab allies to support the Palestinians and from parts of the population to reassert state control. Then-President Charles Helou turned to Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser to broker a deal — the result: the Cairo Agreement, signed in November 1969 between Lebanon and the PLO.
What it did:
- Let Palestinian fighters operate from southern Lebanon against Israel
- Gave Palestinian factions autonomy inside refugee camps
- Banned the Lebanese Army from entering the camps
But it didn’t take long for tensions to explode. Just six years later, in 1975, Lebanon was at war.
3. What’s the situation today?
The 12 camps still exist. And while they’re recognized by the Lebanese state, the army still doesn’t operate inside most of them. Instead, security is handled by a patchwork of Palestinian factions. Some camps, like Ain al-Helweh in southern Lebanon, have seen repeated armed clashes.
During Abbas’s visit, Lebanese leaders said they want to reclaim control of all weapons on Lebanese soil, in other words, disarm all non-state actors. That includes Palestinian groups in the camps.
Just as Abbas was leaving Beirut, Lebanese and Palestinian officials agreed on a step-by-step disarmament plan for the camps. It kicks off mid-June, starting with the less problematic camps around Beirut: Burj al-Barajneh, Shatila and Mar Elias.
Next up in July: the Bekaa and northern camps, like Al-Jalil and Beddawi.
The final and toughest phase? The southern camps, especially Ain el-Helweh, where armed groups, internal clashes and Islamist factions make any move complicated and risky.
The plan is to avoid force and work through agreements with factions likeHamas, which by the way, opposes Abbas and the PLO but says it’s open to talks but hasn’t committed. There’s real concern that some groups might resist, and authorities are preparing evacuation plans if things escalate.
Bottom line: the state says it’s serious this time. Abbas supports it. Regional players are watching. And Hezbollah, for now, isn’t standing in the way.
Bonus Q: How did other countries deal with the fedayeen?
Jordan took a much harder line. By the late sixties, the PLO had built a mini-state inside Jordan. But in Black September (1970), King Hussein’s army crushed the movement, killing thousands and forcing the PLO out by 1971.
Syria also cracked down. In 1971, then-President Hafez al-Assad banned cross-border operations into Israel from Syrian territory. He created his own loyal Palestinian faction (as-Sa’iqa) and blocked arms from reaching the PLO.
With Jordan and Syria shutting them down, where did the fedayeen go? Lebanon.