MP Salim Sayegh warned on Sunday that plans to set up a displacement center in Beirut’s Karantina district raise serious security concerns, cautioning that the crisis could be exploited to smuggle weapons or plant sleeper cells.

Speaking to Al-Mashhad, Sayegh described Karantina as “a highly sensitive area,” noting that it sits at the northern gateway to the capital and just steps away from the Beirut port.

He said the area has historically served as a base for Palestinian armed groups and later for the Syrian army, and was a key battleground in past efforts to control access to Beirut.

“Whoever controls this corridor effectively tightens their grip on the capital,” he said, adding that the issue has revived public anxiety and memories of Lebanon’s civil war.

Sayegh warned that Beirut is already under heavy economic and social strain, while also facing ongoing Israeli airstrikes on the city and its southern suburbs, placing the capital under growing pressure.

He expressed concern that any facility set up to house displaced people could turn into a military hub if infiltrated by armed elements. Most of those displaced, he said, are coming from Beirut’s southern suburbs, where widespread destruction has made it difficult to return, increasing the likelihood that their displacement will be prolonged.

“Lebanon’s track record shows that what’s meant to be temporary often ends up becoming permanent,” Sayegh said, warning that this could effectively shift Hezbollah’s presence from its traditional stronghold in the southern suburbs to what he called a potential “northern suburb.”

Separately, Kataeb MP Nadim Gemayel met with the prime minister alongside a group of Beirut lawmakers, including Hagop Terzian, Nicolas Sehnaoui, and Jean Talouzian, to discuss the issue.

According to Sayegh, the prime minister said there are no plans to turn the proposed site into a shelter for displaced people. Instead, the project would establish a Red Cross center, emergency and logistics services, and a central kitchen to support other aid operations across Beirut, given the need to assist hundreds of thousands.

He also stressed that no displaced people would be housed at the northern entrance to the capital.

Sayegh said the issue will remain under ongoing discussion between the government and lawmakers, emphasizing that any decision must be made in consultation with residents and their representatives, given the sensitivity of the situation.

He added that the current displacement crisis is unprecedented, noting that a large share of those displaced come from areas considered part of Hezbollah’s support base. He said they are being treated on humanitarian grounds by both the state and the public, in a spirit of solidarity.

However, he warned against the risk that displacement could be used to smuggle weapons, embed sleeper cells, or use civilians as human shields, noting that Lebanon has faced similar scenarios in the past and should not repeat them.

Sayegh concluded by accusing Hezbollah of failing to abide by government decisions and effectively defying state authority. He said the country faces a divide between the legitimacy represented by state institutions and forces that operate outside that framework; a situation, he warned, that could ultimately lead to confrontation.