BEIRUT: Lebanon has warned Palestinian militant group Hamas not to conduct operations that compromise the country’s security or sovereignty, Beirut’s Supreme Defense Council said on Friday.
The warning by Lebanon’s top military body came weeks after several Lebanese and Palestinians were detained on suspicion of firing rockets from Lebanon into northern Israel.
The council recommended a series of decisions to Lebanon’s Cabinet, including “warning Hamas against using Lebanese territory to carry out any actions that threaten Lebanese national security.”
It added that “any act that would violate Lebanon’s sovereignty will be met with the harshest measures.”
The council session on Friday was presided over by President Joseph Aoun for the first time since his election.
Brig. Gen. Mohammed Al-Mustafa, the council’s spokesperson, said that “military and security leaders have submitted multiple reports on the situation in several Lebanese areas, particularly concerning the firing of rockets from Lebanon toward the occupied territory, the suspects’ detention, and the issuance of necessary directives ensuring the proper enforcement of judicial procedures against them.”
Military and security bodies arrested several people suspected of launching rockets from Lebanese territory toward the Israeli side on March 22 and 28.
The council was told that “the relevant bodies will begin their judicial proceedings next week against the detainees, as well as anyone deemed involved.”
According to Al-Mustafa, Aoun during the meeting underlined “the importance of boosting security, stability and extending state authority over all Lebanese territory, given its positive implications at various levels, based on the National Accord Document, the oath speech, and the government’s ministerial statement.”
Aoun confirmed “the necessity of being firm with anyone attempting to turn Lebanon into a platform to disrupt stability, while emphasizing the importance of the Palestinian cause, and rejecting Lebanon’s involvement in any conflict or its exposure to danger.”
During the meeting, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam stressed “the necessity to hand over illegal weapons, following the National Accord Document and the ministerial statement, and to prevent Hamas or any other faction from undermining Lebanon’s national security and stability.”
He said that “the safety of Lebanese territory is above all else,” emphasizing “the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination, under international law and the Arab Peace Initiative.”
A security source revealed to Arab News that this measure comes in the context of the Lebanese army’s demand that Hamas hand over four individuals hiding in the Ain Al-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp, suspected of involvement in planning rocket launches.
They are considered military cadres, whereas the four individuals already detained by the army are merely executors who set up and launched the rockets.
The source said: “Hamas attempted to dissuade the security agencies from arresting the four cadres through calls made by its leadership to political figures, particularly Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, an ally of Hezbollah.”
However, the response was that the matter is under the jurisdiction of the Lebanese army, and no one would intervene in favor of Hamas against Lebanese interests.
Hisham Debsi, director of the Tatweer Center for Strategic Studies and Human Development and a Palestinian researcher, said: “What Hamas has done has reached an unacceptable level of audacity, especially as the movement linked the handover of its weapons to the Lebanese authorities with Hezbollah handing over its own weapons.”
Debsi said that “the process of disarming the Palestinian camps will proceed in phases and in coordination with the Palestinian Authority and the Fatah movement. Here lies the importance of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s upcoming visit to Lebanon on May 21.”
This will be Abbas’s third visit to Lebanon after visits in 2007 and 2009.
Standing in front of the Presidential Palace after meeting with former President Michel Suleiman, Abbas had affirmed: “We will implement all that the Lebanese authorities’ requests about handing over Palestinian weapons, which no longer serve the Palestinian cause but rather work against it.”
Debsi added: “Hezbollah, in contrast, prioritizes resolving the issue of weapons in the camps before discussing its own arms. In my opinion, this is a tactic to buy time. I believe this maneuver has failed, as evidenced by the Higher Defense Council’s position today, after Hamas crossed a Lebanese red line by launching rockets — a fatal mistake.
“Overlooking the arms depots in the camps, whether they were smuggled by Hezbollah or others, is unacceptable,” Debsi said. “The Lebanese authorities are aware of the locations of rocket and ammunition depots. One such depot in the Burj Al-Shemali camp exploded, resulting in the killing of 24 people.
“Handing over weapons and rejecting any security enclaves within the camps is a political matter,” he added. “What is required is to bring the camps under the law and hold Palestinians accountable according to the law.
“Disarming the camps is a step toward reconciling them with the Lebanese state, based on the rule of sovereignty and law in the camps.”
He said that “Palestinian refugees, both inside and outside their homes in the camps, are in a general state of discontent with all Palestinian parties, as their concerns lie elsewhere.”
Ghassan Ayoub, a media official in Ain Al-Hilweh camp responsible for the wanted persons’ file, told Arab News: “The issue of Palestinian weapons has not yet been officially discussed between the Lebanese authorities and the Palestine Liberation Organization. When it is addressed, it must be based on the principle of rights and duties. We have bloody experiences with the matter of handing over weapons in the camps, which led in 1982 to the Sabra and Shatila massacre against unarmed Palestinians at the time.”
Ayoub said the weapons found among Palestinian refugees in the camps are Kalashnikovs and handguns, which are commonly found in Lebanese homes as well.
He emphasized that such weapons are no longer effective when compared with the advanced Israeli weaponry used in the attacks on Lebanon, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
He added that the Palestinian camps initially expressed sympathy with the Hamas Al-Aqsa Flood operation, although public sentiment shifted as Palestinian suffering intensified.
“Today, the priority for people is to stop the genocide of Palestinians and the stabilization of the lives of refugees in Lebanon’s camps,” Ayoub said.
“We have no options, as we are affected by what happens in Lebanon. We are not expatriates here; we live our lives in every sense and do not want to be treated as foreigners.”
