Palestinian factions started handing over some of the weapons held in a refugee camp on the outskirts of Beirut to the Lebanese army on Thursday, an initial step in implementing a plan officials announced three months earlier for removing arms from the camps.

Lebanon said on Thursday it was launching the planned disarmament of Palestinian factions in refugee camps, part of a wider effort to establish a state monopoly on arms.

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."Today marks the beginning of the first phase of the process of handing over weapons from inside the Palestinian camps,