Army troops eased a siege of Palestinian refugee camps Friday after the defeated guerrillas agreed to surrender their heavy weapons, virtually dismantling the PLO's last major base for attacks on Israel.
Trucks loaded with vegetables, fruit, flour and meat rolled into the Ein el-Hilweh and Mieh Mieh shantytowns. Army troops manning checkpoints at the main gateways searched the vehicles for weapons before allowing them through.These were the first supplies to enter the camp since Monday when an army deployment in Sidon touched off gun battles with Palestinian guerrillas trying to hold on to their last Middle East power base.
Forty-six people were killed and 173 wounded before government representatives worked out an accord with representatives of Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization.
Under the accord, the PLO guerrillas would restrict their presence to the camps, remove heavy weapons from the shantytowns and cooperate with the estimated 10,000 soldiers trying to restore government control in unruly southern Lebanon for the first time in 16 years.
Without a single shot fired, guerrillas retreated Friday into their camps from defense positions on the fringes. Army units moved into the vacated positions.
From his headquarters in Tunis, Arafat on Thursday declared his full backing of the accord his representatives worked out with the Lebanese government.
Beginning Saturday, the guerrillas will pile up their weapons in the army-controlled village of Bramiyeh. Tunisia and Yemen, where the PLO maintains military camps, have been suggested as a possible destination.
The heavy weapons the guerrillas will surrender include anti-aircraft guns, mortar and howitzer batteries and multi-barrelled rocket launchers and rocket-propelled grenades.