Now, many months later, a landmark agreement mediated by the Lebanese Army has led to the partial disarmament of the camp for the first time with a ban on the public display of weapons or factional uniforms.

Bullet holes and commemorative portraits of fallen fighters line Mieh Mieh’s streets and remind residents of the conflict that erupted Oct. 15, when a dispute between members of the Fatah movement and the Hezbollah-affiliated Ansar Allah turned violent. The rival groups had clashed intermittently before, but this bout of fighting was the heaviest in years with five people killed and 26 wounded. An agreement to ease tensions was finally reached on Nov. 5 after mediation by Hezbollah and its allies.

“We spent months as refugees again,” university student Sarah Mawed told Al-Monitor. Lebanon’s camps have become semipermanent settlements over the years, but when Mawed and her family were forced to leave, the displacement made them double refugees.

MIEH MIEH CAMP, Lebanon — It seemed clear that the people of the Mieh Mieh refugee camp had finally — however cautiously — reclaimed their own streets on the afternoon of May 24. Seven months since deadly clashes in the Palestinian refugee camp near Sidon in southern Lebanon, shopkeepers, families, elderly people and children have replaced the armed fighters who had forced many residents to evacuate the camp and seek shelter elsewhere.

While the agreement has brought newfound hope and security to Mieh Mieh and has markedly improved the lives of the more than 5,000 people who live there, according to some officials, the partial disarmament is an incomplete victory in the quest for an end to hostilities. Although some in Mieh Mieh hope that similar deals will take place in other Palestinian camps where violence has taken place, leaders in Beirut and among the camp’s factions are skeptical that the political will exists to enact meaningful progress toward disarmament and long-term security in Lebanon’s Palestinian camps.

The situation in Mieh Mieh is not unique — several other Palestinian camps like the neighboring Ain al-Hilweh and Nahr el-Bared in Tripoli have been scenes of violence in the past, and the ready availability of weapons in these camps has powered conflicts there for decades. But the deal, which was implemented in two phases throughout early and mid May, has reduced the likelihood of future violent confrontations in Mieh Mieh by removing the majority of the weapons from the camp and prohibiting their appearance in public. Tayssir Yassin, a member of the camp’s Popular Committee — which deals with education and other social matters — said the terms of the deal had been fully implemented by May 22 and praised the agreement’s results so far.

Leaders from the Hamas movement, which is also present in the camp and subject to the agreement, met personally with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri to discuss the matter on May 20.

According to Ghalab K. Dannan, the leader of the Fatah movement in the camp, the agreement gave the Lebanese state more responsibility in the camp alongside the existing armed factions.

“The basis of the agreement is that security will be guaranteed by the Lebanese state,” Dannan told Al-Monitor. He added that army patrols will take place in the camp, and the only weapons that remain will be stored in closed storehouses and are “not to be used under any circumstances.”

According to Dannan, anyone who fires a weapon in the camp will be subject to arrest by the Lebanese state. The Lebanese Armed Forces, which have overseen the implementation of the agreement, declined to comment for this story. Al-Monitor also tried to contact the Ministry of Defense, to no avail.

Residents have noticed the weapons ban's effects on their daily lives. “There was really a big difference, as can be seen,” Mahmoud Shibli, a young man living in Mieh Mieh, told Al-Monitor. “From my point of view, it’s important [for life] inside the camp and outside the camp.”

“The idea that you cannot see the weapons on a daily basis, or the uniforms, the gatherings on this street, it’s a relief,” said Mawed the student. “You can feel that things are easing down.”

Yet while the camp feels safer for Shibli, Mawed and others, the agreement’s aim was never total disarmament — for Palestinian factions, holding weapons symbolizes their continued struggle against Israel and desire to return to their homeland.

Ansar Allah spokesman Ibrahem Jishi told Al-Monitor that the total removal of arms would never take place. He stated, “We reject any attempt to withdraw [all] the Palestinian weapons from any of the Palestinian camps.”

Dannan said that any weapons that the factions hold in the camps are to be reserved solely for fighting Israel and not for inter-Palestinian conflict, citing the 1969 Cairo Agreement that allowed Palestinian militias to move freely through Lebanon’s refugee camps.

Yet the Lebanese government officially annulled the Cairo Agreement in 1987, and in 2006, the Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee — created by the Lebanese government in 2005 to deal with Palestinian issues — decided to eliminate Palestinian weapons outside the camps.

However, according to Hasan Mneymneh, the committee's chairman, even this goal has not yet been met. Mneymneh stated that while the recent deal reached in Mieh Mieh is a positive step, it will by no means be a comprehensive solution to the problem.

“The Palestinian arms inside and outside the camps should be removed,” Mneymneh told Al-Monitor, “Because the purpose of carrying the arms inside the camps has lost its meaning. It no longer can serve in the struggle against Israel, and it turned into just a tool for inter-factional conflict.”

Yassin stated that the most viable path toward increased security is through organizing existing weapons through partial disarmament, and said he hoped other camps would follow in Mieh Mieh’s footsteps.

Mneymneh remained skeptical.

“We see that agreement is limited to the Mieh Mieh context given that it’s a small camp,” he said. “There is a history of integration between the camp and the side village, and so we don’t see that coming to other camps as soon as it should.”

Ansar Allah's Jishi largely agreed.

“There are camps that have the capacity to implement what happened in Mieh Mieh, but those camps, I think, would face many difficulties in achieving the organization of weapons that took place in Mieh Mieh,” he said.

Already, it appears that the Mieh Mieh deal may be contributing to instability in other camps. The weapons that have been removed from Mieh Mieh have been transported to Ain al-Hilweh camp, where clashes have also taken place in past years. Residents are reportedly worried about the effects these new arms will have on their community — although Mneymneh downplayed the danger to Al-Monitor.

Despite these significant drawbacks, residents of Mieh Mieh remain hopeful for the future. Dannan stated that the most important phase of the agreement may be just beginning.

“We want to work together and be devoted to security in the camp,” he said. “Now begins work that is more difficult.”

The recent agreement bodes well for Mieh Mieh, even though much remains to be done to maintain the current security situation. Beyond its borders, however, there is little chance that similar deals will be reached in other, larger Palestinian camps anytime soon because, according to Mneymneh, “The will to act on both the Lebanese and the Palestinian side is not there.”