Syria and Lebanon’s moves to centralize power leads to crackdowns on Palestinian factions

Hamas fighters attend the funeral procession of a Hamas official Samer al-Haj who was killed on Friday by an Israeli drone strike, at Ein el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp, in the southern port city of Sidon, Saturday, Aug. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Mohammed Zaatari)

BEIRUT — Lebanon and Syria are cracking down on Palestinian factions that for decades have had an armed presence in both countries and which on some occasions were used to plan and launch attacks against Israel.

The crackdown comes as Syria’s new rulers under Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham are pursuing officials of the former government under Bashar Assad, including those in the ousted president’s web of security agencies. Syria’s most prominent Palestinian factions were key allies of the Assad dynasty in both war and peace time and closely cooperated on security matters.

It also comes after Iran’s main regional ally, the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, was weakened after over a year of war with Israel and as Lebanon’s new government vows to monopolize all arms under the government, including Hezbollah and Palestinian factions in Lebanon.

On Wednesday, Syria’s President Ahmad al-Sharaa said his government is holding indirect talks with Israel through mediators, who he did not name. He said the aim of the indirect negotiations is to ease tensions after intense Israeli airstrikes on Syria.

A crackdown on hardline Palestinian factions, including the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which took part with Hamas in the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in Gaza, is likely to be welcomed by Israel.

A Syrian government official declined to comment on the matter.

A Palestinian official who had been in Damascus for more than 40 years, and who recently left the country, said Palestinian factions in Syria were forced to hand over their weapons and the Palestinian embassy will be the only side that Syria’s new authorities will deal with. The Palestinian groups would only be limited to social and charitable activities, the official added, who spoke on condition of anonymity fearing for their safety.

‘We are simply guests here’

Palestinian factions for decades have lived in refugee camps in Lebanon and Syria and have been involved militarily both locally and regionally. They closely aligned themselves with the Assads and later with Hezbollah in Lebanon, whose powerful military arsenal grew over the past few decades. Over time, many of the leaders of groups like Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad were based in those countries.

However, the regional developments of late 2024 that went against Iran’s favor in the Levant began to take shape in recent weeks among the Palestinian factions in Lebanon and Syria.

“No weapons will be allowed in the (Palestinian refugee) camps. The Syrian state will protect citizens whether they are Palestinians or Syrians,” said Syrian political analyst Ahmad al-Hamada, whose view points reflect those of the government. “It is not allowed for Palestinian factions that were arms for Iran and the Assad regime to keep their weapons.”

When asked whether the state will prevent any attacks against Israel, al-Hamada said Syria will not allow its territories to be used as a launch pad against any neighbor.

Syrian authorities in Damascus this week detained two senior officials of the Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad group and briefly detained and questioned the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, FLP-GC, that since its founding had been a key ally of Assad.

Another Palestinian official with one of the factions that had been based in Syria said the developments caught them by surprise, and that regardless of who runs the country they are keen to have good relations with Syria’s new rulers and maintain the country’s stability.

“We hope that this wouldn’t have happened. But we don’t have a say in this,” the official said, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are still based in the country. “We are simply guests here.”

The government in Lebanon, which is trying to expand its army’s influence in the south near Israel, has also been reclaiming dozens of informal border crossings with Syria, which were key arteries for Iran and its allies to transport weapons and fighters over the years. Many of those crossings were held by PFLP-GC militants who have given some of those positions up to the Lebanese army after Assad’s downfall.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who Palestinian factions in Syria oppose, visited Damascus last month for the first time in more than a decade and he is scheduled to visit Lebanon on May 21.

‘Unprecedented times’

After Israel intensified its airstrikes on Lebanon in response to Hamas allegedly firing rockets from southern Lebanon in late March, the Lebanese government for the first time called out the Palestinian group and arrested nearly 10 suspects involved in the operation. Hamas was pressured by the military to turn in three of their militants from different refugee camps.

Ahmad Abdul-Hadi, a Hamas representative in Lebanon, was also summoned by the head of one of the country’s top security agencies over the incident and was formally told that Hamas should stop its military activities.

Lebanon’s President Joseph Aoun, who is backed by the United States and Arab countries rather than Hezbollah and Iran, has said armed factions should not be allowed to “shake up national security and stability.” His statement has set a new tone after decades of tolerating the presence of armed Palestinian groups in refugee camps which have led to armed conflict in the crowded ghettos.

“I think we’re in unprecedented times, politically speaking,” said Mohanad Hage Ali, a senior fellow at the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut. “The (Lebanese) army is acting out of a political will, with its former chief now the president. There is a strong political thrust behind the army.”

A Lebanese government official familiar with the initiative said that Hamas was told to hand over wanted militants and end all its military activity in the country. He added that there is also a plan to gradually give up Hamas’ weapons, which coincides with the visit to Lebanon of Abbas, leader of the rival Fatah group.

Bassem Mroue And Kareem Chehayeb, The Associated Press