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Palestinian factions in several Beirut refugee camps surrendered their weapons to the Lebanese army on Friday, an official said, as the government disarms non-state groups.Ramez Dimashkieh, chairman of the official Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee, told AFP that “the Palestine Liberation Organisation handed over three truckloads of weapons to the Lebanese army”, including rockets and heavy weapons.One truckload came from the Mar Elias camp and Shatila camps, and two from the Burj al-Barajneh camp in Beirut and its suburbs, he said, adding that “this completes the process of handing over” PLO weapons from the Beirut camps.At the entrance to the Burj al-Barajneh camp, AFP correspondents saw large wooden crates being moved to a nearby parking lot where soldiers inspected them before transporting them away, as troops deployed heavily to the area.The official National News Agency had earlier reported the arrival of army vehicles in the camp “to receive a new batch of Palestinian weapons”.During a visit to Beirut in May, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and Lebanese President Joseph Aoun agreed that weapons in Lebanon’s Palestinian refugee camps would be handed over to the Lebanese authorities.The implementation of the deal began last week as Abbas’s Fatah movement surrendered weapons in Burj al-Barajneh camp.Abbas’s Fatah is the most prominent PLO faction. Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which are allied to Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group, are not part of the organisation.Dimashkieh said Friday that “there are still other factions that have not surrendered their weapons but the process has started”.On Thursday, PLO factions handed over heavy weapons in south Lebanon’s Rashidieh, Al-Bass and Burj al-Shemali camps, the Lebanese-Palestinian dialogue committee said.The move to collect the Palestinian factions’ weapons comes as the Lebanese army draws up a plan to disarm Hezbollah by the end of the year.The plan, which is to be presented to the cabinet by the end of the month, was commissioned by the government under heavy US pressure and amid fears of expanded Israeli military action.During a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah that largely ended with a November ceasefire, Palestinian groups including Hamas claimed rocket fire towards Israel.By longstanding convention, the Lebanese army stays out of the Palestinian camps and leaves Palestinian factions to handle security.

At least 841 people have been executed in Iran since the start of the year, the UN said Friday, decrying “a systematic pattern of using the death penalty as a tool of state intimidation”.The United Nations’ human rights office said there had been a “major increase in executions” by Tehran during the first half of 2025.”Iranian authorities have executed at least 841 people since the beginning of the year,” spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva.”The real situation might be different,” she added. “It might be worse, given the lack of transparency.”In July alone, she said, Iran had executed at least 110 individuals — twice the number of people executed in July 2024.”The high number of executions indicates a systematic pattern of using death penalty as a tool of state intimidation, with disproportionate targeting of ethnic minorities and migrants,” Shamdasani added.She cited the executions of Afghan nationals, and of Baluch, Kurdish and Arab citizens.In the first six months of the year, at least 289 people were executed for drug-related offences.Shamdasani said the pattern witnessed across multiple countries showed that when their governments perceive threats to their grip on public order, they become increasingly repressive and less tolerant of dissent.- Hangings before children -The spokeswoman in particular criticised the staging of public executions in Iran. The rights office documented seven such cases since the beginning of the year — some reportedly in front of children.”Public executions add an extra layer of outrage upon human dignity… not only on the dignity of the people concerned — the people who are executed — but also on all those who have to bear witness,” she said.”The psychological trauma of bearing witness to somebody being hanged in public, particularly for children, is unacceptable.”The UN human rights office said there were serious concerns over due process in capital punishment cases.”What we are particularly worried about is that a lot of these death sentences are imposed based on vague laws,” the spokeswoman said, such as charges of enmity against God.Shamdasani said that 11 individuals were currently facing “imminent execution” in Iran, including six charged with “armed rebellion” due to alleged membership of the exiled opposition People’s Mujahedeen Organization of Iran (MEK).The other five had been sentenced to death over their participation in large-scale protests in 2022, she said. Iran’s supreme court last week confirmed the death sentence against workers’ rights activist Sharifeh Mohammadi, she added.The UN rights office was urging Iran’s government “not to implement the death penalty against these and other individuals on death row”, Shamdasani said.”The death penalty is incompatible with the right to life and irreconcilable with human dignity,” she added.”It creates an unacceptable risk of executing innocent people. It should never be imposed for conduct that is protected under international human rights law.”UN human rights chief Volker Turk is calling on Tehran to impose a moratorium on the application of the capital punishment, as a step towards abolition.