Moscow is offering a sum of up to 350 dollars to Palestinian refugees residing in Lebanon using Russian entities to recruit them to sign up to join the ongoing war it’s waging in Ukraine on behalf of Russia.
Some Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon, as the US news agency The Media Line reported on Tuesday citing a Lebanese security official, have already signed up to fight in the war after being recruited by activists connected with the Palestinian embassy in Lebanon.
Most of the enlisted Palestinians, as the article says, do not have proper registration with the Lebanese authorities since, according to the source, they were born after 1969.
Since Lebanon authorities don’t have the ability to control or track the movement of these refugees born from this point onwards, they can travel easier for the purpose of participating in the Ukraine conflict as mercenaries.
Though no one knows the exact number of Palestinian refugees that have so far been recruited to fight for Russia, some speculate that approximately 300 Palestinians have already been deployed to the frontlines after completing the rapid training in Russia.
Speculations say there’s another group of approximately 100 additional fighters in the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp which is reportedly being organized and prepared for deployment to Russia in the near future.
The source points out that most of the recruited refugees are reportedly members of the political movement led by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas – Fatah – as well as to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and other organizations, adding that Hezbollah also participated in the recruitment.
The majority of these Palestinians come from the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon – Ein Al-Khalwa – and they reportedly receive a monthly allowance and compensation for their families in exchange for agreeing to participate in the Russian war against Ukraine.
Riad Kahwaji, a prominent Lebanese security and defense academic, underscores that, to him, it is not surprising or incomprehensible that these things happen considering the high unemployment is pervasive in Palestinian camps in both Syria and Lebanon.
Kahwaji, who did not have specific information on recruitment, noted that the situation in the camps is miserable with no jobs whatsoever for the young men.
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