ֱ

How unequal shelter access puts Israel’s Arab and Bedouin communities at greater risk

Special How unequal shelter access puts Israel’s Arab and Bedouin communities at greater risk
Israeli emergency services and security officers search for casualties in the rubble of a building hit by an Iranian missile in Beersheba in southern Israel on June 24, 2025. (AFP)
Short Url
Updated 14 July 2025

How unequal shelter access puts Israel’s Arab and Bedouin communities at greater risk

How unequal shelter access puts Israel’s Arab and Bedouin communities at greater risk
  • Decades of infrastructure neglect have left Arab and Bedouin areas without basic protections enjoyed by Jewish communities
  • Residents are calling for equal emergency planning, arguing that safety during conflict should be a right, not a privilege

LONDON: As Iranian rockets shook East Jerusalem in mid-June, Rawan Shalaldeh sat in the dark while her seven-year-old son slept. She had put him to bed early and hid her phone to prevent the constant alerts from waking him, hoping sleep would shield her child from the terror above.

“The bombing was very intense; the house would shake,” Shalaldeh, an architect and urban planner with the Israeli human rights and planning organization Bimkom, told Arab News.

While residents in nearby Jewish districts rushed into reinforced shelters, Shalaldeh and her family in the Palestinian neighborhood of Jabal Al-Zaytoun had nowhere to go.




Israelis gather in a underground shelter in Tel Aviv on June 24, 2025, after sirens sounded in several areas across the country after missiles were fired from Iran. (AFP/File)

“East Jerusalem has only about 60 shelters, most of them inside schools,” she said. “They’re designed for students, not for neighborhood residents. They’re not available in every area, and they’re not enough for the population.”

Her home is a 15-minute walk from the nearest shelter. “By the time we’d get there, the bombing would already be over,” she said.

Instead, her family stayed inside, bracing for the next strike. “We could hear the sound but couldn’t tell if it was from the bombs or the interception systems,” she recalled. “We couldn’t sleep. It was terrifying. I fear it will happen again.”

That fear is compounded by infrastructure gaps that make East Jerusalem’s residents more vulnerable. “Old homes in East Jerusalem don’t have shelters at all,” she said. “New homes with shelters are rare because it’s extremely hard to get a building permit here.”




Arab and Bedouin communities were left without basic protections enjoyed bytheir Jewish neighbors. (AFP)

Israeli law requires new apartments to be built with protected rooms. However, homes built without permits are unlikely to follow the guidelines, leaving most without safe space.

The contrast with West Jerusalem is stark. “There’s a big difference between East and West Jerusalem,” Shalaldeh said. “In the west, there are many shelters, and things are much easier for them.”

Indeed, a June 17 report by Bimkom underscored these disparities. While West Jerusalem, home to a mostly Jewish population, has about 200 public shelters, East Jerusalem, which is home to nearly 400,000 Palestinians, has just one.

Even where shelters do exist they are often inaccessible. The municipality’s website fails to clearly mark their locations, and many residents are unaware they exist. Some shelters even remain locked during emergencies — especially at night.

The report concluded that the current infrastructure is grossly inadequate, leaving most East Jerusalem residents without access to basic protection during attacks.




Men inspect the destruction to a home in the northern Arab-Israeli city of Tamra, on June 24, 2025, days after after an Iranian ballistic missile slammed into the neighborhood. (AFP)

Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem hold temporary residency IDs that lack any listed nationality and must be renewed every five years. Unlike Arab citizens of Israel — often referred to as “48 Arabs” — or residents of southern Israel, they do not have Israeli citizenship.

For many Palestinian and Arab citizens of Israel, the 12-day Israel-Iran war in June laid bare a deeper inequity — one that extends beyond conflict and into the fabric of everyday life.

“I haven’t spoken with any of my friends in the north yet, but I saw videos on Instagram,” Shalaldeh said. “Arab families tried to enter shelters and were prevented — because they’re Arab.”

The war, she said, exposed an uncomfortable truth for many Arab citizens of Israel. “After the war, many realized they’re not treated like Israelis — even though they have citizenship, work in Israel and speak Hebrew.”




This picture shows Bedouin shelters at Khirbat Khlayel near al-Mughayyir village, north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on June 1, 2025. (AFP)

“There’s an Israeli policy that tries to blur their identity. But the war opened a lot of people’s eyes. It became clear they’re not equal, and the issue of shelters was shocking for many.”

One town where this inequity became alarmingly visible was Tira, a predominantly Arab community in central Israel with roughly 27,000 residents. Though well within the range of missile attacks, Tira lacks adequate public shelters.

“Most of the few shelters that exist are outdated, insufficient, or located far from residential areas,” Fakhri Masri, a political and social activist from Tira, told Arab News. “In emergencies, schools are often opened as temporary shelters, but they only serve nearby neighborhoods and can’t accommodate everyone.

“Many homes do not have protected rooms, and this leaves families, especially those with children or elderly members, extremely vulnerable.”




Israeli air defence systems are activated to intercept Iranian missiles over the Israeli city of Tel Aviv early on June 18, 2025. (AFP)

When sirens sounded during the attacks, panic set in. “It was the middle of the night,” Masri said. “Many of us had to wake our children, some still half asleep, and scramble for any kind of cover.

With official shelters scarce, families resorted to improvised solutions. “People ran into stairwells, lay on the ground away from windows, or tried to reach school shelters — if they were even open or nearby,” he said.

Others simply fled to their cars or huddled outdoors, hoping distance from buildings would offer some safety.

“It was chaotic, frightening, and it felt like we were left completely on our own,” Masri said. “The fear wasn’t just of rockets — it was also the fear of having no place to run to.”

Underlying this crisis, he argued, is a deeper pattern of state neglect. “Arab towns like Tira were never provided with proper infrastructure or emergency planning like Jewish towns often are,” he said. “That in itself feels like a form of discrimination.




Israeli police officers check the damage following a rocket attack from southern Lebanon that targeted the central Israeli-Arab city of Tira, on November 2, 2024. (AFP File)

“It makes you feel invisible — like our safety doesn’t matter. It’s a constant reminder that we’re not being protected equally under the same state policies.

“We are not asking for anything more than what every citizen deserves — equal rights, equal protection, and the right to live in safety and dignity. It is a basic human right to feel secure at our own home, to know that our children have somewhere safe to go during an emergency.”

Masri, who has long campaigned for equal emergency protections, called on the Israeli government to end discrimination in shelter planning.

“Treat Arab towns with the same seriousness and care as any other town,” he said. “We are people who want to live in peace. We want our children to grow up in a country where safety is not a privilege but a right — for everyone, Jewish and Arab alike.

“Until that happens, we will keep raising our voices and demanding fairness, because no one should be left behind.”

The picture is similar for the roughly 100,000 Bedouin who live across 35 unrecognized villages in the Negev and Galilee regions, often in makeshift homes that provide little protection. Many of these villages are near sensitive sites targeted by Iran.




A bedouin shepherd leads his flock atop his donkey in the hills near the city of Rahat in the north of Israel's Negev desert on August 28, 2024. (AFP)

One such village is Wadi Al-Na’am, the largest unrecognized village in Israel, home to about 15,000 Bedouin residents in the southern Negev desert.

“When we say unrecognized, it means we have nothing,” said Najib Abu Bnaeh, head of the village’s emergency team and a member of its local council. “No roads, no electricity, no running water — and certainly no shelters.

“During wars, people flee the villages. They hide in caves, under bridges — any place they can find.”

IN NUMBERS

250 Shelters built across Negev since Oct. 7, 2023 — half of them by the state.

60 School-based shelters in East Jerusalem, concentrated in select locations.

1 Public shelter in East Jerusalem.

200 Public shelters in West Jerusalem.

(Source: Bimkom)

After the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel, the army began installing a small number of shelters in unrecognized villages. But Abu Bnaeh said that these efforts have fallen short.

“In our village, they built two structures,” he said. “But they have no ceilings, so they don’t protect from anything.”

He estimates that more than 45,000 protective buildings are needed across all unrecognized villages.




Cars destroyed in a rocket attack allegedly fired from the Gaza strip are seen through a damaged window of a house in the village of Arara in the Negev Desert, a place residents say is constantly hit by rockets, on October 14, 2023. (AFP)

As the head of Wadi Al-Na’am’s emergency response team, Abu Bnaeh leads a group of 20 volunteers. Together, they assist residents during missile alerts, evacuating families to shelters in nearby townships such as Segev Shalom and Rahat, and delivering food and medicine.

“We train people how to take cover and survive,” he said. “We also help train teams in other villages how to respond to injuries, missiles and emergencies.

“The best way to protect people is simple. Recognize the villages. Allow us to build shelters.”




This picture shows a view of the Bedouin community of al-Auja west of Jericho in the Israel-occupied West Bank on March 16, 2025, which was attacked the previous week by Israeli settlers who reportedly stole sheep. (AFP)

Even recognized villages face issues. In Um Bateen, officially recognized in 2004, basic infrastructure is still missing.

“Although our village is recognized, we still don’t have electricity,” Samera Abo Kaf, a resident of the 8,000-strong community, told Arab News.

“There are 48 Bedouin villages in northern Israel. And even those recognized look nothing like Jewish towns nearby.”

Building legally is nearly impossible. “The state refuses to recognize the land we’ve lived on for generations,” she said. “So, we build anyway — out of necessity. But that means living in fear; of winter collapsing our roofs, or bulldozers tearing our homes down.”




Bedouins from the Zanun family, which is part of the Azazme tribe, eat a holiday meal after slaughtering one of their sheep on the first day of the Eid al-Adha holiday in their village of Wadi Naam, currently unrecognized by Israeli authorities, near the southern city of Beersheba in the Israeli Negev desert. (AFP/File)

Abo Kaf said that the contrast is obvious during her commute. “I pass Beer Sheva and Omer — trees, paved roads, tall buildings. It’s painful. Just 15 minutes away, life is so different.

“And I come from a village that is, in many ways, better off than others,” she added.

With each new conflict, the fear returns. “Israel is a country with many enemies — it’s no secret,” Abo Kaf said. “Every few years, we go through another war. And we Bedouins have no shelters. None.




Bedouins protest against the Israeli government's demolition of houses in the area, in the southern town of Beersheba, on June 12, 2025. (AFP)

“So not only are our homes at risk of demolition, but we also live with the threat of rockets. It’s absurd. It’s infuriating. If something doesn’t change, there’s no future.”

Michal Braier, Bimkom’s head of research, said that no government body had responded to its report, though many civil society organizations have supported its findings based on specific cases.

“There are stark protection gaps between high- and low-income communities,” she told Arab News. “And most Arab and Palestinian communities rank low on socio-economic indicators.

“This is a very neo-liberal planning and development policy that, by definition, leaves the weak behind.”


UN says reports of possible expansion of Israeli Gaza operations ‘deeply alarming’ during session on hostages

UN says reports of possible expansion of Israeli Gaza operations ‘deeply alarming’ during session on hostages
Updated 20 sec ago

UN says reports of possible expansion of Israeli Gaza operations ‘deeply alarming’ during session on hostages

UN says reports of possible expansion of Israeli Gaza operations ‘deeply alarming’ during session on hostages
  • Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar also spoke ahead of the session to highlight the plight of Israeli hostages

NEW YORK: The United Nations on Tuesday called reports about a possible decision to expand Israel’s military operations throughout the Gaza Strip “deeply alarming” if true.

UN Assistant Secretary-General Miroslav Jenca told a UN Security Council meeting on the situation in Gaza that such a move “would risk catastrophic consequences ... and could further endanger the lives of the remaining hostages in Gaza.”

He continued: “International law is clear in the regard, Gaza is and must remain an integral part of the future Palestinian state.”

He added that the UN had also been clear that there was only one path to ending the ongoing violence and humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, through a full and permanent ceasefire, and the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.

“Life-saving humanitarian aid must flow into Gaza at scale and without obstruction, and civilians must be guaranteed safe, unhindered access to assistance. There is no military solution to the conflict in Gaza or the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” he said.

“We must establish political and security frameworks that can relieve the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, start early recovery and reconstruction, address the legitimate security concerns of Israelis and Palestinians, and secure an end to Israel’s unlawful occupation and achieve a sustainable two-State solution - Israel and a fully independent, democratic, contiguous, viable and sovereign Palestinian State, of which Gaza is an integral part – living side by side in peace and security within secure and recognized borders, on the basis of the pre-1967 lines, with Jerusalem as the capital of both States,” he added.

Israeli foreign minister Gideon Saar also spoke ahead of the session to highlight the plight of Israeli hostages, during which he also said countries that had announced plans to recognize a Palestinian state in recent weeks had sabotaged a ceasefire deal with the Hamas terror group.

Britain, France, Canada, and several other countries said they would recognize a Palestinian state in September, some of them unconditionally and some depending on Israel’s actions in Gaza.

“There are countries that acted, also in this building, to pressure Israel instead of Hamas during sensitive days in the negotiations by attacking Israel, campaigning against Israel, and the announcement of a recognition of a virtual Palestinian state,” he said. 

“They gave Hamas free gifts and incentives to continue this war, they directly assassinated the hostage deal and ceasefire.

“Let me be clear, these countries prolonged the war. Hamas is responsible for beginning this war by invading Israel and committing the Oct. 7 atrocities.

“Hamas is also responsible for the continuation of this war by still refusing to release our hostages and lay down its arms. The international pressure must be on Hamas. Anything else only prolongs the war,” he added.


Syrian president and UK national security adviser discuss strengthening ties

Syrian president and UK national security adviser discuss strengthening ties
Updated 36 min 21 sec ago

Syrian president and UK national security adviser discuss strengthening ties

Syrian president and UK national security adviser discuss strengthening ties
  • Meeting in Damascus attended by foreign minister and intelligence director

LONDON: Ahmad Al-Sharaa, the interim president of the Syrian Arab Republic, discussed strengthening ties with the UK during a meeting with National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell in Damascus on Tuesday.

The two sides discussed regional and international developments during a meeting attended by Asaad Al-Shaibani, the minister of foreign affairs and expatriates, and Director of General Intelligence Hussein Al-Salama.

Al-Sharaa emphasized Syria’s willingness to consider sincere initiatives that promote regional security and stability, as long as they respect Syrian sovereignty and independent national decisions, the official SANA news agency reported.


Aid truck drivers face increasing danger from desperate crowds, armed gangs

Aid truck drivers face increasing danger from desperate crowds, armed gangs
Updated 55 min 24 sec ago

Aid truck drivers face increasing danger from desperate crowds, armed gangs

Aid truck drivers face increasing danger from desperate crowds, armed gangs
  • Thousands of people packed the road around them on Monday as two trucks entered southern Gaza, as shown in AP video

GAZA CITY: Truck drivers trying to deliver aid inside Gaza say their work has become increasingly dangerous in recent months as people have grown desperately hungry and violent gangs have filled a power vacuum left by the territory’s rulers.
Crowds of hungry people routinely rip aid off the backs of moving trucks, the local drivers said. 
Some trucks are hijacked by armed men working for gangs who sell the aid in Gaza’s markets for exorbitant prices. Israeli troops often shoot into the chaos, they said.
Drivers have been killed in the mayhem.
Since March, when Israel ended a ceasefire in its war with Hamas and halted all imports, the situation has grown increasingly dire in the territory of some 2 million Palestinians. International experts are now warning of a “worst-case scenario of famine” in Gaza.

FASTFACT

Nahed Sheheibr, head of the Special Transport Association, accused Israel of detaining drivers and using them as human shields.

Under heavy international pressure, Israel last week announced measures to let more aid into Gaza. Though aid groups say it’s still not enough, getting even that amount from the border crossings to the people who need it is difficult and extremely dangerous, the drivers said.
Thousands of people packed the road around them on Monday as two trucks entered southern Gaza, as shown in AP video. 
Young men overwhelmed the trucks, standing on the cabs’ roofs, dangling from the sides, and clambering over each other onto the truck beds to grab boxes even as the trucks slowly kept driving.
“Some of my drivers are scared to go transfer aid because they’re concerned about how they’ll untangle themselves from large crowds of people,” said Abu Khaled Selim, vice president of the Special Transport Association, a nonprofit group that works with private transportation companies across the Gaza Strip and advocates for truck drivers’ rights.
Selim said his nephew, Ashraf Selim, a father of eight, was killed July 29 by a stray bullet when Israeli forces opened fire on crowds climbing onto the aid truck he was driving.
Shifa Hospital officials said they received his body with an apparent gunshot to the head. 
Earlier in the war, aid deliveries were safer because, with more food getting into Gaza, the population was less desperate. Hamas-run police had been seen securing convoys and went after suspected looters and merchants who resold aid at exorbitant prices,
Now, “with the situation unsecured, everything is permissible,” said Selim, who appealed for protection so the aid trucks could reach warehouses.
The UN does not accept protection from Israeli forces, saying it would violate its rules of neutrality, and said that given the urgent need for aid, it would accept that hungry people were going to grab food off the back of the trucks as long as they weren’t violent.
Flooding Gaza with renewed aid would ease the desperation and make things safer for the drivers, said Juliette Touma, communications director at UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
Ali Al-Derbashi, 22, had been an aid truck driver for more than a year and a half, but he quit after his last trip three weeks ago due to the increasing danger, he said. Some people taking aid off the trucks are now carrying cleavers, knives, and axes, he said.
He was once ambushed and forcibly redirected to an area designated by Israel as a conflict zone in its war against Hamas. There, everything was stolen, including his truck’s fuel and batteries, and his tires were shot out, he said. He was beaten and his phone was stolen.
“We put our lives in danger for this. We leave our families for two or three days every time. And we don’t even have water or food ourselves,” he said. 
In addition to the danger, the drivers faced humiliation from Israeli forces, he said, who put them through “prolonged searches, unclear instructions, and hours of waiting.”
The war began Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted 251 others. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 61,000 Palestinians, according to the latest figures by Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t distinguish between militants and civilians and operates under the Hamas government.
The threats come from everywhere
Nahed Sheheibr, head of the Special Transport Association, said the danger for the drivers comes from everywhere. 
He accused Israel of detaining drivers and using them as human shields. 
In recent days, men linked to a violent Gaza clan fired at drivers, injuring one, and looted a convoy of 14 trucks, he said. They later looted a convoy of 10 trucks.
Hossni Al-Sharafi, who runs a trucking company and was an aid driver himself, said he is only allowed to use drivers who have no political affiliation and have been approved by Israel to transport aid from crossings.
Al-Sharafi said he was detained by Israeli forces for more than 10 days last year while transporting aid from the southern Kerem Shalom crossing and interrogated about where the truck was headed and how the aid was being distributed. Israeli officials did not comment on the accusations.
Some drivers spoke of being shot at repeatedly by armed gangs. 
Others said their trucks were routinely picked clean — even of the wooden pallets— by waves of desperate people, many of whom were fighting each other for the food, while Israeli troops were shooting. Hungry families who miss out on the aid throw stones at the trucks in anger.
Anas Rabea said the moment he pulled out of the Zikkim crossing last week, his aid truck was overwhelmed by a crowd.
“Our instructions are to stop, because we don’t want to run anyone over,” he said. 
“It’s crazy. You have people climbing all over the cargo, over the windows. It’s like you’re blind, you can’t see out.”
After the crowd had stripped everything, he drove another few hundred meters and was stopped by an armed gang that threatened to shoot him. They searched the truck and took a bag of flour he had saved for himself, he said.
“Every time we go out, we get robbed,” he said. “It’s getting worse day by day.”

 


Hezbollah rejects timetable for disarmament as Lebanese Cabinet forms plan for arms restrictions

Hezbollah rejects timetable for disarmament as Lebanese Cabinet forms plan for arms restrictions
Updated 39 min 15 sec ago

Hezbollah rejects timetable for disarmament as Lebanese Cabinet forms plan for arms restrictions

Hezbollah rejects timetable for disarmament as Lebanese Cabinet forms plan for arms restrictions
  • Lebanese government tells army to prepare plan for state control of all weapons by end of the year, and present it to ministers this month
  • Secretary-General of Hezbollah Naim Qassem: The state must take steps to ensure protection, not strip its citizens and resistance of their power

BEIRUT: The Lebanese Cabinet met at the Presidential Palace on Tuesday to discuss the most sensitive item on its agenda: the disarming of Hezbollah and the need to restrict control of weaponry to the state.

However, ministers faced pressure from Hezbollah’s secretary-general, Naim Qassem, and his supporters amid external diplomatic counterpressures.

The session, chaired by Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and attended by President Joseph Aoun, lasted for about five hours, with the proceedings shrouded in secrecy. It concluded with an announcement by Salam that the Cabinet had decided to continue the discussions, and to implement proposals presented by US envoy Tom Barrack, during their next meeting on Thursday. They will also ask the Lebanese army to develop a plan to restrict control of arms to the state by the end of the year, and present it to the Cabinet by the end of this month.

A political observer told Arab News: “Lebanon has received foreign diplomatic calls to refrain from delaying the approval of the arms-restriction clause and setting a timetable for its implementation. Otherwise, Lebanon will be left to its own fate, in the absence of any guarantees that Israel will, in return, withdraw from the positions it still occupies within Lebanese territory.”

Qassem responded to the Cabinet meeting with a vehement speech in which he said: “The state must take steps to ensure protection, not strip its citizens and resistance of their power. The international community cannot intervene merely to demand that Lebanon achieve Israel’s goals.”

Beginning on Tuesday morning, the army carried out security operations on the old Sidon road that separates Beirut’s southern suburbs from the city and its eastern suburbs. Their activities blocked demonstrators who attempted to leave the area on motorcycles during the Cabinet meeting in a show of support for Qassem.

It came as political and security officials intensified coordination in an attempt to contain street protests and prevent any activity they feared might threaten stability.

Beirut has been gripped by anxiety in the past few days, which has affected normally vibrant evening street activity. On Monday night, dozens of Hezbollah-supporting motorcyclists roamed the streets of the capital, chanting “long live Hassan Nasrallah,” the former secretary-general of Hezbollah who was assassinated by an Israeli airstrike on southern Beirut in September last year.

During his speech, Qassem said that “any discussion about Lebanon’s future security must be based on a comprehensive national security strategy, not on timetables aimed at disarming the resistance.”

He rejected the demands that Hezbollah disarm, warning that any attempt to impose such action without broad national agreement would fail.

“The resistance is an integral part of the Lebanese fabric and of the Taif Accord itself,” he said, referring to the 1989 agreement that ended the 15-year Lebanese Civil War.

“Therefore it cannot be treated as a matter subject to a vote, or cancellation by a numerical majority. Rather, it must be discussed through national consensus, out of respect for constitutional and charter principles.”

Ignoring this reality, regardless of international or regional pressures, would “undermine the foundations of stability in Lebanon,” he added

Qassem also said that “the American presence in Lebanon aims to dismantle the power and capabilities of Hezbollah, and Lebanon as a whole,” and the latest, third memorandum on the issue from Barrack, the US envoy, was “worse than the first and second.”

He added: “Among its provisions is the dismantling of 50 percent of Hezbollah’s infrastructure within 30 days, including hand grenades and mortar shells, i.e. weapons considered simple, and these measures should be completed before Israel withdraws from the five remaining points on the border.”

Qassem said that “what Barrack brought is entirely in Israel’s interest” and added: “We cannot adhere to any timetable for dismantling Lebanon’s power that is implemented under the umbrella of Israeli aggression.

“If Israel chooses a large-scale aggression against Lebanon, missiles will fall upon it. All the security that Israel has worked to achieve for eight months will collapse in a single hour.”

He added that if Hezbollah surrendered its weapons, “the aggression will not stop, and this is what Israeli officials are saying. We will not accept being slaves to anyone. To anyone who speaks of concessions under the pretext of halting funding, we ask: what funding is he talking about?

“Prime Minister Nawaf Salam boasts of his commitment to taking measures to liberate all occupied territories, but where are these measures?”

The atmosphere in the 24 hours leading up to the Cabinet meeting was increasingly tense. Pro-Hezbollah activists took to social media to recall the bloody events of May 7, 2008, when the group’s members, wearing black shirts, took to the streets of Beirut and Mount Lebanon and clashed with supporters of the Future Movement and the Progressive Socialist Party, in an attempt was to overturn a decision by the Lebanese government at the time to confiscate the communications network belonging Hezbollah's Signal Corps, and to dismiss the then commander of Beirut Airport Security, Brig. Gen. Wafiq Shuqair, who was close to Hezbollah.

Ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, government ministers from the Amal Movement stressed that they supported efforts to restrict control of weapons to the state. Fadi Makki denied that ministers from Amal and Hezbollah would withdraw from the session, and Hanin Al-Sayyed said she would “vote in favor of restricting Hezbollah’s weapons.”

However, Rakan Nasser Al-Din, a Hezbollah member of the government, said only: “Anything will be done according to its requirements.”

A proposal circulated later on Tuesday stated that Lebanese authorities will “refer the implementation of the arms-control agreement to the Supreme Defense Council, headed by the president of the republic. This referral means assigning the Lebanese army the responsibility of planning and preparing for the implementation phases, as the matter relates to technical military matters. Some weapons need to be destroyed, while others need to be dismantled.”

During a speech on Aug 1., celebrated annually as Lebanese Army Day, President Aoun told the country that “this is a fateful phase and all illusions have fallen. Let us together make a historic decision to authorize the army alone to bear arms and protect the borders for all of us.”


Lebanon tasks army with setting plan to restrict arms to state

Lebanon tasks army with setting plan to restrict arms to state
Updated 05 August 2025

Lebanon tasks army with setting plan to restrict arms to state

Lebanon tasks army with setting plan to restrict arms to state
  • Salam said the government “tasked the Lebanese army with setting an implementation plan to restrict weapons” to the army
  • The plan is to be presented to the cabinet by the end of August for discussion and approval

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s government on Tuesday tasked the army with developing a plan to restrict arms to the state by year end, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam said, an unprecedented move that paves the way for disarming Hezbollah.

After a nearly six-hour cabinet session headed by President Joseph Aoun on disarming the Iran-backed militant group, Salam said the government “tasked the Lebanese army with setting an implementation plan to restrict weapons” to the army and other state forces “before the end of this year.”

The plan is to be presented to the cabinet by the end of August for discussion and approval, he told a press conference after the marathon session.

A November ceasefire deal that sought to end more than a year of hostilities including two months of all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah stated that Lebanese government authorities such as the army, security forces and local police are “the exclusive bearers of weapons in Lebanon.”

Salam said the cabinet would continue discussions this week on a proposal from US envoy Tom Barrack that includes a timetable for disarming Hezbollah.

Information Minister Paul Morcos said that the cabinet “set a deadline of the end of the year to consolidate arms in the hands of the Lebanese state.”

He said Hezbollah-affiliated Health Minister Rakan Nassereldine and Environment Minister Tamara Elzein, who is affiliated with its ally the Amal movement, “withdrew from the session because they did not agree with the cabinet decision.”

Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem had said a short time earlier, as the cabinet was in session, that “any timetable presented for implementation under... Israeli aggression cannot be agreed to.”

“Whoever looks at the deal Barrack brought doesn’t find an agreement but dictates,” he said, arguing that “it removes the strength and capabilities of Hezbollah and Lebanon entirely.”