Armed Palestinian groups in refugee camps in Lebanon will start handing over their weapons to the authorities on Thursday, a joint committee said, following a deal reached in May.
The announcement comes after the Lebanese government also tasked the army with formulating a plan to disarm the militant group Hezbollah by the end of the year.
"Today marks the beginning of the first phase of the process of handing over weapons from inside the Palestinian camps," Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee chairman Ramez Dimashkieh said in a statement.
The process would begin with the Burj al-Barajneh camp in Beirut, where an initial batch of weapons would be placed in the custody of the Lebanese army, Dimashkieh added.
An AFP photojournalist saw dozens of fighters in military fatigues holding Kalashnikov rifles as crowds gathered in front of the Beirut headquarters of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah movement.
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