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{{Short description|1982 mass murder of civilians in Beirut, Lebanon}}
{{About|the 1982 mass murder in Beirut, Lebanon|the 1985–1988 subconflict of the Lebanese Civil War|War of the Camps}}
{{pp-extended|small=yes}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2024}}
{{Use Oxford spelling|date=October 2023}}
{{Infobox civilian attack
| title = Sabra and Shatila massacre
| partof = the [[Lebanese Civil War]] and the [[1982 Lebanon War]]
| image = File:Dead bodies piled up in Shatila camp, Beirut, Lebanon, on 20 September 1982. Several hundred Palestine refugees and other civilians were massacred in the Sabra and Shatila districts of south Beirut between 16 and 18 September (cropped).jpg
| caption = Bodies of victims in Shatila, 20 September 1982
| ___location = [[Beirut]], Lebanon
| native_name_lang = ar
| coordinates = {{Coord|33.8628|35.4984|type:event_region:LB|format=dms|display=inline,title}}
| target = Sabra neighbourhood and the [[Shatila refugee camp]]
| date = 16–18 September 1982
| time =
| timezone =
| type = [[Genocidal massacre]]
| motive = Reprisal for falsely accusing Palestinians of [[assassination of Bachir Gemayel|assassinating Bachir Gemayel]], [[Islamophobia]], [[anti-Palestinianism]]
| fatalities = 1,300 to 3,500+
| injuries =
| victims = [[Palestinians in Lebanon|Palestinians]] and [[Lebanese Shia Muslims|Lebanese Shias]]
| perpetrators = {{flagicon image|Flag of the Lebanese Forces.svg}} [[Lebanese Forces (militia)|Lebanese Forces]]<br>{{Flagicon image|Lebanesearmyfirstflag.png|size=23px}} [[South Lebanon Army]] (attack)<br />{{flagdeco|Israel}} [[Israel Defense Forces]] (support)
| map = {{Location map|Lebanon|label = Sabra and Shatila| border = none | float = center|caption = {{align|center|Site of the attack in [[Lebanon]]}}}}
}}
{{Campaignbox Lebanese Civil War}}
The '''Sabra and Shatila massacre''' was the 16–18 September 1982 killing of between 1,300 and 3,500 civilians{{Emdash}}mostly [[Palestinians in Lebanon|Palestinians]] and [[Lebanese Shia Muslims|Lebanese Shias]]{{Emdash}}in the city of [[Beirut]] during the [[Lebanese Civil War]]. It was perpetrated by the [[Lebanese Forces (militia)|Lebanese Forces]], one of the main [[Lebanese Front|Christian militias in Lebanon]], and supported by the [[Israel Defense Forces]] (IDF) that had surrounded Beirut's [[Sabra (Lebanon)|Sabra neighbourhood]] and the adjacent [[Shatila refugee camp]].<ref>{{cite web|title= Sabra and Shatila massacre: What happened in Lebanon in 1982?|url= https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/9/16/sabra-and-shatila-massacre-40-years-on-explainer|website=Al Jazeera|date=16 September 2022}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Fisk|2001|pp=[https://books.google.com/books?id=VrXpeELOUNsC&pg=PA374 382–383]}}; {{harvnb|Quandt|1993|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=-rmCPnSghbcC&pg=PA256 266]}}; {{harvnb|Alpher|2015|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=eCxyBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA48 48]}}; {{harvnb|Gonzalez|2013|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=HypnAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA113 113]}}</ref>
In June 1982, Israel [[1982 Lebanon War|invaded Lebanon]] with the intention of rooting out the [[Palestine Liberation Organization]] (PLO). By 30 August 1982, under the supervision of the [[Multinational Force in Lebanon|Multinational Force]], the PLO withdrew from Lebanon following weeks of battles in West Beirut and shortly before the massacre took place. The Lebanese president [[Bashir Gemayel]] banned the Lebanese Forces from operating in Beirut, replacing their positions with the Lebanese army. On 11 September 1982, the multinational force withdrew from Lebanon, and the Lebanese army entered parts of West Beirut to restore civil order but did not enter the Palestinian camps. Various forces—Israeli, Lebanese Forces and possibly also the [[South Lebanon Army]] (SLA)—were in the vicinity of Sabra and Shatila at the time of the slaughter, taking advantage of the fact that the Multinational Force had removed barracks and mines that had encircled Beirut's predominantly Muslim neighborhoods and kept the Israelis at bay during the [[siege of Beirut]].{{sfn|Hirst|2010|p=154}} On the 14th of September, Bashir was assassinated by an SSNP militant under the orders of the Syrian regime, and taking advantage of the power vacuum Israel occupied west Beirut the following day. The Israeli advance over West Beirut in the wake of the PLO withdrawal, which enabled the Lebanese Forces raid, was in violation of the ceasefire agreement between the various forces.<ref name="Anziska">{{cite news |last1=Anziska |first1=Seth |title=A Preventable Massacre |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/17/opinion/a-preventable-massacre.html |access-date=21 July 2022 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=17 September 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140815021424/http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/17/opinion/a-preventable-massacre.html?_r=3&pagewanted=2&partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all |archive-date=15 August 2014}}</ref>
The killings are widely believed to have taken place under the command of Lebanese politician [[Elie Hobeika]], whose family and fiancée had been murdered by Palestinian militants and left-wing Lebanese militias during the [[Damour massacre]] in 1976, itself a response to the [[Karantina massacre]] of Palestinians and Lebanese Shias at the hands of Christian militias.<ref name="guardian_obit">{{Cite news |last1=Mostyn |first1=Trevor |date=2002-01-25 |title=Obituary: Elie Hobeika |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |publisher=guardian.co.uk |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/jan/25/israelandthepalestinians.lebanon |access-date=16 August 2015 |archive-date=8 November 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171108130100/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/jan/25/israelandthepalestinians.lebanon |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Friedman|1982}}. Also articles in [[The New York Times]] on the 20, 21, and 27 September 1982.</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=William W. |last=Harris |title=The New Face of Lebanon: History's Revenge |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e5R7Ci2btbIC&pg=PA162 |access-date=27 July 2013 |date=2006 |publisher=Markus Wiener Publishers |isbn=978-1-55876-392-0 |page=162 |quote=the massacre of 1,500 Palestinians, Shi'is, and others in Karantina and Maslakh, and the revenge killings of hundreds of Christians in Damour}}</ref><ref name="maher">{{cite news |last=Hassan |first=Maher |title=Politics and war of Elie Hobeika |url=http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/politics-and-war-elie-hobeika |access-date=29 December 2012 |newspaper=[[Egypt Independent]] |date=24 January 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230127005359/https://egyptindependent.com/politics-and-war-elie-hobeika/ |archive-date=27 January 2023}}</ref> In total, between 300 and 400 militiamen were involved in the massacre, including some from the [[South Lebanon Army]].<ref>{{cite book |author-link=John Bulloch (Journalist) |last=Bulloch |first=John |date=1983 |title=Final Conflict: The War in Lebanon |publisher=Century London |isbn=0-7126-0171-6 |page=231}}</ref> As the massacre unfolded, the IDF received reports of atrocities being committed, but did not take any action to stop it.<ref name="malone">{{cite journal |last=Malone |first=Linda A. |title=The Kahan Report, Ariel Sharon and the Sabra Shatilla Massacres in Lebanon: Responsibility Under International Law for Massacres of Civilian Populations |journal=[[Utah Law Review]] |year=1985 |pages=373–433 |url=http://scholarship.law.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1606&context=facpubs&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fscholar.google.com.tr%2Fscholar%3Fhl%3Den%26q%3Dmassacres%2Bin%2Blebanon%26btnG%3D%26as_sdt%3D1%252C5%26as_sdtp%3D#search=%22massacres%20lebanon%22 |access-date=1 January 2013 |archive-date=17 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230417035542/https://scholarship.law.wm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1606&context=facpubs&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fscholar.google.com.tr%2Fscholar%3Fhl%3Den&q=massacres+in+lebanon&btnG=&as_sdt=1%2C5&as_sdtp=#search=%22massacres%20lebanon%22 |url-status=live}}</ref> Instead, Israeli troops were stationed at the exits of the area to prevent the camp's residents from leaving{{sfn|Shahid|2002|p=38}} and, at the request of the Lebanese Forces,{{sfn|Hirst|2010|p=157|ps=: "The carnage began immediately. It was to continue without interruption till Saturday noon. Night brought no respite; the Lebanses Forces liaison officer asked for illumination and the Israelis duly obliged with flares, first from mortars and then from planes."}} shot flares to illuminate Sabra and Shatila through the night during the massacre.<ref>{{cite book |title=From Beirut to Jerusalem |last=Friedman |first=Thomas |author-link=Thomas Friedman |publisher=Macmillan |year=1995 |page=[https://archive.org/details/frombeiruttojeru00frie/page/161 161] |isbn=978-0-385-41372-5 |quote=From there, small units of Lebanese Forces militiamen, roughly 150 men each, were sent into Sabra and Shatila, which the Israeli army kept illuminated through the night with flares. |url=https://archive.org/details/frombeiruttojeru00frie/page/161}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Palestinian Liberation Organisation: people, power, and politics |url=https://archive.org/details/palestinianliber00hele |url-access=registration |last=Cobban |first=Helena |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=1984 |isbn=978-0-521-27216-2 |page=[https://archive.org/details/palestinianliber00hele/page/4 4] |quote=and while Israeli troops fired a stream of flares over the Palestinian refugee camps in the Sabra and Shatila districts of West Beirut, the Israeli's Christian Lebanese allies carried out a massacre of innocents there which was to shock the whole world.}}</ref>
In February 1983, an independent commission chaired by Irish diplomat [[Seán MacBride]], assistant to the [[Secretary-General of the United Nations]], concluded that the IDF, as the then occupying power over Sabra and Shatila, bore responsibility for the militia's massacre.{{sfn|MacBride|Asmal|Bercusson|Falk|1983|pp=191–192}} The commission also stated that the massacre was a form of [[Palestinian genocide accusation|genocide]].{{sfn|Hirst|2010|p=153}} And in February 1983, the Israeli [[Kahan Commission]] found that Israeli military personnel had failed to take serious steps to stop the killings despite being aware of the militia's actions, and deemed that the IDF was indirectly responsible for the events, and forced erstwhile Israeli defense minister [[Ariel Sharon]] to resign from his position "for ignoring the danger of bloodshed and revenge" during the massacre.{{sfn|Schiff|Ya'ari|1985|pp=[https://archive.org/details/israelslebanonwa0000schi/page/283 283–284]}}
==Background==
=== Lebanese Civil War and Israeli-PLO skirmishes ===
From 1975 to 1990, groups in competing alliances with neighboring countries fought against each other in the [[Lebanese Civil War]]. Infighting and massacres between these groups claimed several thousand victims. Examples: the Syrian-backed [[Karantina massacre]] (January 1976) by the Kataeb and its allies against [[Kurds in Lebanon|Kurds]], [[Syrians in Lebanon|Syrians]] and [[Palestinians in Lebanon|Palestinians]] in the predominantly Muslim slum district of Beirut; the [[Damour massacre]] (January 1976) by the PLO against Christian [[Maronite Christianity in Lebanon|Maronites]], including the family and fiancée of the Lebanese Forces intelligence chief [[Elie Hobeika]]; and the [[Tel al-Zaatar massacre]] (August 1976) by Phalangists and their allies against Palestinian refugees living in a camp administered by [[United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East|UNRWA]]. The total death toll in Lebanon for the whole civil war period was around 150,000 victims.<ref>{{cite news |last=Wood |first=Josh |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=12 July 2012 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/12/world/middleeast/after-2-decades-scars-of-lebanons-civil-war-block-path-to-dialogue.html |title=After 2 Decades, Scars of Lebanon's Civil War Block Path to Dialogue |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231229170727/https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/12/world/middleeast/after-2-decades-scars-of-lebanons-civil-war-block-path-to-dialogue.html |archive-date=29 December 2023}}</ref>
As the civil war unfolded, Israel and the PLO had been exchanging attacks since the early 1970s until early 1980s.<ref name="Metz1988">{{cite book |editor-first=Helen Chapin |editor-last=Metz |editor-link=Helen Chapin Metz |title=Israel: A Country Study |url=http://countrystudies.us/israel/33.htm |year=1988 |publisher=GPO for the Library of Congress |___location=Washington |chapter=Israel in Lebanon |access-date=24 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230930071007/https://countrystudies.us/israel/33.htm |archive-date=30 September 2023 |quote=In July 1981 Israel responded to PLO rocket attacks on northern Israeli settlements by bombing PLO encampments in southern Lebanon. United States envoy [[Philip Habib]] eventually negotiated a shaky cease-fire that was monitored by UNIFIL.}}</ref>
The [[casus belli]] cited by the Israeli side to declare war, however, was an assassination attempt, on 3 June 1982, made upon Israeli Ambassador to Britain [[Shlomo Argov]]. The attempt was the work of the [[Iraq]]-based [[Abu Nidal]], possibly with [[Syrian]] or Iraqi involvement.{{sfn|Becker|1984|p=362}}{{sfn|Schiff|Ya'ari|1985|pp=[https://archive.org/details/israelslebanonwa00zeev/page/99 99–100]}} Historians and observers<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/abu-nidal-notorious-palestinian-mercenary-was-a-us-spy-972812.html |title=Abu Nidal, notorious Palestinian mercenary, 'was a US spy' |last=Fisk |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Fisk |date=25 October 2008 |work=[[The Independent]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240504005119/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/abu-nidal-notorious-palestinian-mercenary-was-a-us-spy-972812.html |archive-date=4 May 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/christopherhitch00thom |url-access=registration |quote=shlomo argov casus belli. |title=Christopher Hitchens and His Critics: Terror, Iraq, and the Left|first1=Thomas |last1=Cushman |first2=Simon |last2=Cottee |first3=Christopher |last3=Hitchens |year=2008 |publisher=[[NYU Press]] |isbn=978-0814716878 |page=[https://archive.org/details/christopherhitch00thom/page/300 300]}}</ref> such as [[David Hirst (journalist)|David Hirst]] and [[Benny Morris]] have commented that the PLO could not have been involved in the assault, or even approved of it, as Abu Nidal's group was a bitter rival to Arafat's PLO and even murdered some of its members.<ref name="rival">{{harvnb|Hirst|2010|p=134}}: "Clearly, the Israelis had just about dispensed with pretexts altogether. For form's sake, however, they did claim one for the launching of the Fifth Arab–Israeli war. The attempted assassination, on 3 June, of the Israeli ambassador in Britain, Shlomo Argov, was not the doing of the PLO, which promptly denounced it. It was another exploit of Arafat's arch-enemy, the notorious, Baghdad-based, Fatah dissident Abu Nidal ... the Israelis ignored such distinctions."</ref> The PLO issued a condemnation of the attempted assassination of the Israeli ambassador.<ref name="rival" /> Nonetheless, Israel used the event as a justification to break the ceasefire with the PLO, and as a casus belli for a full-scale invasion of Lebanon.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YlA2UM1r2gIC&q=shlomo+argov+casus+belli&pg=PA158 |title=Israel's Wars: A History since 1947 (Warfare and History) |first=Ahron |last=Bergman |year=2002 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0415424387 |pages=158–159 |access-date=24 March 2016 |archive-date=8 October 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241008001753/https://books.google.com/books?id=YlA2UM1r2gIC&q=shlomo+argov+casus+belli&pg=PA158#v=snippet&q=shlomo%20argov%20casus%20belli&f=false |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Military Occupations in the Age of Self-Determination: The History Neocons Neglected (Praeger Security International) |url=https://archive.org/details/militaryoccupati0000gann |url-access=registration |year=2008 |publisher=Praeger |isbn=978-0313353826 |first=James |last=Gannon |page=[https://archive.org/details/militaryoccupati0000gann/page/162 162] |access-date=24 March 2016}}</ref>
=== Post-war assessment ===
After the war, Israel presented its actions as a response to terrorism being carried out by the PLO from several fronts, including the border with Lebanon.{{sfn|Becker|1984|p=257}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Israeli |first=Raphael |title=PLO in Lebanon: Selected Documents |publisher=[[Weidenfeld & Nicolson]] |year=1983 |isbn=0-297-78259-2 |page=7 |quote=From July 1981 to June 1982, under cover of the ceasefire, the PLO pursued its acts of terror against Israel, resulting in 26 deaths and 264 injured.}}</ref> However, these historians have argued that the PLO was respecting the ceasefire agreement then in force with Israel and keeping the border between the Jewish state and Lebanon more stable than it had been for over a decade.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Morris |first1=Benny |author1-link=Benny Morris |title=Righteous Victims : A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881–2001 |date=2001 |publisher=[[Vintage Books]] |___location=New York |isbn=978-0-679-74475-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/righteousvictims00morr_0/page/509 509] |quote="The most immediate problem was the PLO's military infrastructure, which posed a standing threat to the security of northern Israeli settlements. The removal of this threat was to be the battle cry to rouse the Israeli cabinet and public, despite the fact that the PLO took great pains not to violate the agreement of July 1981. Indeed, subsequent Israeli propaganda notwithstanding, the border between July 1981 and June 1982 enjoyed a state of calm unprecedented since 1968. But Sharon and Begin had a broader objective: the destruction of the PLO and its ejection from Lebanon. Once the organization was crushed, they reasoned, Israel would have a far freer hand to determine the fate of the West Bank and Gaza Strip." |url=https://archive.org/details/righteousvictims00morr_0/page/509}}</ref> During that ceasefire, which lasted eight months, the UN peacekeeping forces in Lebanon [[United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon|UNIFIL]] reported that the PLO had launched not a single act of provocation against Israel.{{sfn|Hirst|2010|p=133}} The Israeli government tried out several justifications to ditch the ceasefire and attack the PLO, even eliciting accusations from the Israeli opposition that "demagogy" from the government threatened to pull Israel into war.{{sfn|Hirst|2010|p=133}} Before the attempted assassination of the ambassador, all such justifications had been shot down by its ally, the United States, as an insufficient reason to launch a war against the PLO.{{sfn|Hirst|2010|p=133}}
On 6 June 1982, Israel [[1982 Lebanon War|invaded Lebanon]] moving northwards to surround the capital, Beirut.{{sfn|Nuwayhed al-Hout|2004|p=1}} Following an extended [[Siege of Beirut|siege of the city]], the fighting was brought to an end with a U.S.-brokered agreement between the parties on 21 August 1982, which allowed for safe evacuation of the Palestinian fighters from the city under the supervision of Western nations and guaranteed the protection of refugees and the civilian residents of the refugee camps.{{sfn|Nuwayhed al-Hout|2004|p=1}}
On 15 June 1982, 10 days after the start of the invasion, the Israeli Cabinet passed a proposal put forward by the Prime Minister, [[Menachem Begin]], that the IDF should not enter West Beirut but this should be done by [[Lebanese Forces]]. Chief of Staff, [[Rafael Eitan]], had already issued orders that the Lebanese predominantly Christian, right-wing militias should not take part in the fighting and the proposal was to counter public complaints that the IDF were suffering casualties whilst their allies were standing by.{{sfn|Kahan|Barak|Efrat|1983|p=50}} The subsequent Israeli inquiry estimated the strength of militias in West Beirut, excluding Palestinians, to be around 7,000. They estimated the [[Lebanese Forces]] to be 5,000 when fully mobilized of whom 2,000 were full-time.{{sfn|Kahan|Barak|Efrat|1983|p=6}}
On 23 August 1982, [[Bachir Gemayel]], leader of the right-wing [[Lebanese Forces (militia)|Lebanese Forces]], was elected [[List of Presidents of Lebanon|President of Lebanon]] by the National Assembly. Israel had relied on Gemayel and his forces as a counterbalance to the [[PLO]], and as a result, ties between Israel and Maronite groups, from which hailed many of the supporters of the Lebanese Forces, had grown stronger.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Eisenberg |first1=Laura Zittrain |last2=Caplan |first2=Neil |date=1998 |title=Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: Patterns, Problems, Possibilities |publisher=[[Indiana University Press]] |isbn=0-253-21159-X |page=45 |quote=By 1982, the Israeli-Maronite relationship was quite the open secret, with Maronite militiamen training in Israel and high-level Maronite and Israeli leaders making regular reciprocal visits to one another's homes and headquarters"}}{{void|Fabrickator|comment|though wikidata entry shows Eisenberg to be same person as Laura E. Berk, yet Berk does not appear to have had any academic pursuits involving the Middle East, so omitting a wikilink to Berk (though no article is present on any language wiki)}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/publish/article_252.shtml |title=Sabra and Shatilla |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061030121144/http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/publish/article_252.shtml |archive-date=30 October 2006 |website=[[Jewish Voice for Peace]] |access-date=17 July 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Asser |first=Martin |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2255902.stm |title=Sabra and Shatila 20 years on |work=[[BBC News]] |date=14 September 2002 |access-date=17 July 2006 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231207151250/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2255902.stm |archive-date=7 December 2023}}</ref>
By 1 September, the [[Palestine Liberation Organization|PLO]] fighters had been evacuated from Beirut under the supervision of Multinational Force.<ref name="Anziska" /><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/30/newsid_2536000/2536441.stm |work=[[BBC News]] |title=1982: PLO leader forced from Beirut |date=30 August 1982 |access-date=23 May 2010 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240621071015/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/30/newsid_2536000/2536441.stm |archive-date=21 June 2024}}</ref> The evacuation was conditional on the continuation of the presence of the [[Multinational Force in Lebanon]] (MNF) to provide security for the community of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.<ref name="Anziska" /> Two days later the Israeli Premier [[Menachem Begin]] met Gemayel in [[Nahariya]] and strongly urged him to sign a peace treaty with Israel. Begin also wanted the continuing presence of the SLA in southern Lebanon ([[Saad Haddad|Haddad]] supported peaceful relations with Israel) in order to control attacks and violence, and action from Gemayel to move on the PLO fighters which Israel believed remained a hidden threat in Lebanon. However, the Phalangists, who were previously united as reliable Israeli allies, were now split because of developing alliances with Syria, which remained militarily hostile to Israel. As such, Gemayel rejected signing a peace treaty with Israel and did not authorize operations to root out the remaining PLO militants.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Ahron |last1=Bregman |author-link=Ahron Bregman |first2=Jihan |last2=Al-Tahri |title=The Fifty Years War: Israel and the Arabs |pages=172–174 |___location=London |publisher=[[BBC Books]] |date=1998 |isbn=0-14-026827-8}}</ref>
On 11 September 1982, the international forces that were guaranteeing the safety of Palestinian refugees left Beirut. Then on 14 September, Gemayel was assassinated in a massive explosion which demolished his headquarters. Eventually, the culprit, [[Habib Tanious Shartouni]], a Lebanese Christian, confessed to the crime. He turned out to be a member of the [[Syrian Social Nationalist Party]] and an agent of Syrian intelligence. Palestinian and Lebanese [[Islam in Lebanon|Muslim]] leaders denied any connection to him.<ref>{{cite news |first=Walid |last=Harb |url=http://www.thenation.com/doc/19990719/harb |title=Snake Eat Snake |work=[[The Nation (U.S. periodical)|The Nation]] |date=1 July 1999 |access-date=9 February 2006 |archive-url=http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20091002022729/http://www.thenation.com/doc/19990719/harb |archive-date=2 October 2009}}</ref>
On the evening of 14 September, following the news that [[Bachir Gemayel]] had been assassinated, Prime Minister Begin, Defense Minister Sharon and Chief of Staff Eitan agreed that the Israeli army should invade [[Beirut|West Beirut]]. The public reason given was to be that they were there to prevent chaos. In a separate conversation, at 20:30 that evening, Sharon and Eitan agreed that the IDF should not enter the Palestinian refugee camps but that the Phalange should be used.{{sfn|Kahan|Barak|Efrat|1983|p=36}} The only other member of the cabinet who was consulted was Foreign Minister [[Yitzhak Shamir]].{{sfn|Shahid|2002|p=38}} Shortly after 6.00 am 15 September, the Israeli army entered West Beirut,{{sfn|Kahan|Barak|Efrat|1983|pp=11, 31}} This Israeli action breached its agreement with the United States not to occupy West Beirut<ref name="Accused">Panorama: "The Accused", broadcast by the [[BBC]], 17 June 2001; [https://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/audio_video/programmes/panorama/transcripts/transcript_17_06_01.txt transcript] accessed 9 February 2006.</ref> and was in violation of the ceasefire.<ref>{{cite book |first=Mark |last=Ensalaco |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_EW6H-4tQ6cC&pg=PA138 |title=Middle Eastern Terrorism: From Black September to 11 September |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241008001753/https://books.google.com/books?id=_EW6H-4tQ6cC&pg=PA138#v=onepage&q&f=false |archive-date=8 October 2024 |publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania Press]] |date=2012 |page=137|isbn=978-0-8122-0187-1 }}</ref>
{{interlanguage link|Fawwaz Traboulsi|ar|فواز طرابلسي|de}} writes that while the massacre was presented as a reaction to the assassination of Bachir, it represented the posthumous achievement of his "radical solution" to Palestinians in Lebanon, who he thought of as "people too many" in the region. Later, the Israeli army's monthly journal ''Skira Hodechith'' wrote that the Lebanese Forces hoped to provoke "the general exodus of the Palestinian population" and aimed to create a new demographic balance in Lebanon favouring the Christians.{{sfn|Traboulsi|2007}}
== Attack ==
=== Lead-up events ===
On the night of 14/15 September 1982 the [[Israel Defense Forces|IDF]] chief of staff [[Raphael Eitan]] flew to [[Beirut]] where he went straight to the Phalangists' headquarters and instructed their leadership to order a general mobilisation of their forces and prepare to take part in the forthcoming Israeli attack on West Beirut. He also ordered them to impose a general curfew on all areas under their control and appoint a liaison officer to be stationed at the IDF forward command post. He told them that the IDF would not enter the refugee camps but that this would be done by the Phalangist forces. The militia leaders responded that the mobilisation would take them 24 hours to organise.{{sfn|Kahan|Barak|Efrat|1983|p=9}}
On morning of Wednesday 15 September Israeli Defence Minister, Sharon, who had also travelled to Beirut, held a meeting with Eitan at the IDF's forward command post, on the roof of a five-storey building 200 metres southwest of Shatila camp. Also in attendance were Sharon's aide [[Avi Duda'i]], the Director of [[Military Intelligence Directorate (Israel)|Military Intelligence]] -[[Yehoshua Saguy]], a senior [[Mossad]] officer, General [[Amir Drori]], General [[Amos Yaron]], an Intelligence officer, the Head of [[Shin Bet|GSS]]—[[Avraham Shalom]], the Deputy Chief of Staff—General [[Moshe Levi]] and other senior officers. It was agreed that the Phalange should go into the camps.{{sfn|Kahan|Barak|Efrat|1983|p=9}} According to the Kahan Commission report throughout Wednesday, R.P.G. and light-weapons fire from the Sabra and Shatila camps was directed at this forward command post, and continued to a lesser degree on Thursday and Friday (16–17 September). It also added that by Thursday morning, the fighting had ended and all was 'calm and quiet'.{{sfn|Kahan|Barak|Efrat|1983|p=11}}
Following the assassination of Lebanese Christian President [[Bachir Gemayel]], the Phalangists sought revenge. <!--(commented out paragraph - does not belong in this section): The massacre is regarded as a reprisal for the [[Damour massacre]] by [[Palestinians]] a few years earlier,<ref name="ict">{{cite web |date=5 July 2008 |url=https://www.ict.org.il/Articles/tabid/66/Articlsid/291/currentpage/1/Default.aspx |title=PLO Policy towards the Christian Community during the Civil War in Lebanon |publisher=ict.org.il |access-date=16 August 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130731131638/https://ict.org.il/Articles/tabid/66/Articlsid/291/currentpage/1/Default.aspx |archive-date=31 July 2013}}</ref> which personally impacted [[Elie Hobeika]].<ref name="au">{{cite web |url=http://www.moreorless.au.com/killers/hobeika.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041215213908/http://www.moreorless.au.com:80/killers/hobeika.html |archive-date=15 December 2004 |url-status=dead |title=Elie Hobeika killer file |publisher=web.archive.org |access-date=16 August 2015}}</ref> The view of the Sabra and Shatila killing as a revenge for the [[Damour massacre]] was asserted by the prominent writer Samir Khalaf,<ref>{{cite book |last=Samir |first=Khalaf |title=Civil and Uncivil Violence in Lebanon |___location=New York |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |date=2002 |page=45}}</ref> by ''[[The New York Times]]'' writer [[Thomas Friedman]],<ref>{{cite book |last=Friedman |first=Thomas L. |author-link=Thomas Friedman |title=From Beirut to Jerusalem |___location=Glasgow |publisher=Fontana-Collins |date=1990 |page=161}}</ref><ref name="google">{{cite book |title=Massacring: Webster's Quotations, Facts and Phrases |author=Icon Group International, Inc. Staff |date=2008 |publisher=Icon Group International, Incorporated |isbn=9780546713459 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=98N2un6iXUkC&pg=PA72 |page=72 |access-date=16 August 2015}}</ref> and by author B. Gabriel who wrote that "Palestinian militiamen started the killings in 1976, long before the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacres. Beit Mellat, Deir Achache, Damour."<ref name="google2">{{cite book |title=Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America |last=Gabriel |first=B. |date=2006 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |isbn=9780312358372 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f8PzwOjR7Z4C&pg=PA92 |page=92 |access-date=16 August 2015}}</ref> In the Damour massacre, Yasser Arafat's [[PLO]] killed nearly 600 Christians.<ref>{{cite book |last=Nisan |first=Mordechai |date=2003 |title=The Conscience of Lebanon: A Political Biography of Etienne Sakr (Abu-Arz) |___location=London |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=0-7146-5392-6}}</ref>{{pn|date=January 2025}} The Damour massacre, however, had been a response to the [[Karantina massacre]], which had taken place earlier in 1976. In the Karantina massacre, Phalangists killed an estimated 1500 Muslims.<ref>Harris (p. 162) notes "the massacre of 1,500 Palestinians, Shi'is, and others in Karantina and Maslakh, and the revenge killings of hundreds of Christians in [[Damour massacre|Damour]]"</ref> --->By noon on 15 September, Sabra and Shatila had been surrounded by the [[Israel Defense Forces|IDF]], which set up checkpoints at the exits and entrances, and used several multi-story buildings as observation posts. Amongst them was the seven-story Kuwaiti embassy which, according to ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine, had "an unobstructed and panoramic view" of Sabra and Shatila. Hours later, IDF tanks began shelling Sabra and Shatila.{{sfn|Shahid|2002|p=57}}
The following morning, 16 September, the sixth IDF order relating to the attack on West Beirut was issued. It specified: "The refugee camps are not to be entered. Searching and mopping up the camps will be done by the Phalangists/Lebanese Army".{{sfn|Kahan|Barak|Efrat|1983|pp=8–9}}
According to Linda Malone of the [[Jerusalem Fund]], Ariel Sharon and Chief of Staff [[Rafael Eitan]]<ref>{{cite web |first=Linda |last=Malone |url=http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/images/informationbrief.php?ID=40 |title=Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, A War Criminal |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060714051037/http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/images/informationbrief.php?ID=40 |archive-date=14 July 2006 |series=Information Brief |number=78 |date=14 June 2001 |website=[[The Jerusalem Fund]] / The [[Palestine Center]] |access-date=24 February 2006}}</ref> met with Phalangist militia units and invited them to enter Sabra and Shatila, claiming that the PLO was responsible for Gemayel's assassination.<ref>{{cite book |first=Robert |last=Fisk |author-link=Robert Fisk |title=The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East |date=13 February 2007 |pages=484, 488–489 |publisher=[[National Geographic Books]] |isbn=978-1-4000-7517-1}}</ref> The meeting concluded at 15:00 on 16 September.{{sfn|Shahid|2002|p=38}}
Shatila had previously been one of the PLO's three main training camps for foreign fighters and the main training camp for European fighters.{{sfn|Becker|1984|pp=239, 356–357}} The Israelis maintained that 2,000 to 3,000 terrorists remained in the camps, but were unwilling to risk the lives of more of their soldiers after the Lebanese army repeatedly refused to "clear them out."{{sfn|Becker|1984|p=264}} No evidence was offered for this claim. There were only a small number of forces sent into the camps and they suffered minimal casualties.{{sfn|Shahid|2002|p=39}} Two Phalangists were wounded, one in the leg and another in the hand.{{sfn|Kahan|Barak|Efrat|1983|p=13}} Investigations after the massacre found few weapons in the camps.{{sfn|Shahid|2002|p=39}}<ref name="Byman2011">{{cite book |first=Daniel |last=Byman |title=A High Price: The Triumphs and Failures of Israeli Counterterrorism |url=https://archive.org/details/highpricetriumph0000byma|url-access=registration |date=2011 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]], US |isbn=978-0-19-983045-9 |page=[https://archive.org/details/highpricetriumph0000byma/page/68 68]}}</ref> Thomas Friedman, who entered the camps on Saturday, mostly found groups of young men with their hands and feet bound, who had been then lined up and machine-gunned down gang-land style, not typical he thought of the kind of deaths the reported 2,000 terrorists in the camp would have put up with.<ref>{{cite book |last=Friedman |first=Thomas L. |author-link=Thomas Friedman |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=877DR3un9rIC&pg=PT110 |title=From Beirut to Jerusalem |publisher=Macmillan |date=2010 |page=109 |isbn=978-0-374-70699-9 |access-date=22 February 2020 |archive-date=8 October 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241008001758/https://books.google.com/books?id=877DR3un9rIC&pg=PT110#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live}}</ref>
=== Massacre ===
[[File:Men dig a mass grave for the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of civilian victims of the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre.jpg|alt=A dozen men digging a deep hole|thumb|upright|Men dig a mass grave for victims of the massacre: photo from the [[UNRWA]] Archive]]
An hour later, 1,500 militiamen assembled at Beirut International Airport, then occupied by Israel. Under the command of [[Elie Hobeika]], they began moving towards the area in IDF-supplied [[jeeps]], some bearing weapons provided by Israel,<ref>{{cite news |last1=Friedman |first1=Thomas L. |author1-link=Thomas Friedman |title=The Beirut Massacre: The Four Days |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/09/26/world/the-beirut-massacre-the-four-days.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=21 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101015175317/http://www.nytimes.com/1982/09/26/world/the-beirut-massacre-the-four-days.html?pagewanted=all |archive-date=15 October 2010 |date=26 September 1982 |url-status=unfit}}</ref> following Israeli guidance on how to enter it. The forces were mostly Phalangist, though there were some men from [[Saad Haddad]]'s "Free Lebanon forces".{{sfn|Shahid|2002|pp=39–40}} According to [[Ariel Sharon]] and Elie Hobeika's bodyguard, the Phalangists were given "harsh and clear" warnings about harming civilians.<ref name="Accused" /><ref name="online">{{cite book |first=Robert Maroun |last=Hatem |title=From Israel to Damascus |chapter=7: The Massacres at Sabra and Shatilla |chapter-url=http://www.free-lebanon.com/News/Documents_of_Note/DOC_chap8/doc_chap8.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040512001055/http://www.free-lebanon.com/News/Documents_of_Note/DOC_chap8/doc_chap8.html |archive-date=12 May 2004 |access-date=24 February 2006}}</ref> However, it was by then known that the Phalangists presented a special security risk for Palestinians. It was published in the edition of 1 September of ''Bamahane'', the IDF newspaper, that a Phalangist told an Israeli official: "[T]he question we are putting to ourselves is—how to begin, by raping or killing?"{{sfn|Hirst|2010|p=156}} A US envoy to the Middle East expressed horror after being told of Sharon's plans to send the Phalangists inside the camps, and Israeli officials themselves acknowledged the situation could trigger "relentless slaughter".<ref name="Anziska" />
The first unit of 150 [[Phalangists]] entered Sabra and Shatila at sunset on Thursday, 16 September. They entered the homes of the camp residents and began shooting and raping them, often taking groups outside and lining them up for execution.{{sfn|Shahid|2002|p=40|ps=: "The first unit of 150 militiamen [...] entered the camp at sunset on Thursday, 16 September, armed with knives and hatchets in addition to firearms. The killing began almost immediately, with groups of militiamen entering homes and slitting throats, axing, shooting, and raping, often taking groups outside and lining them up for execution. There was virtually no resistance, only a very few camp residents having managed to keep a personal weapon for self-protection: throughout the forty hours of killing, there was only a handful of Phalangist casualties. As of nightfall, both Thursday and Friday, Israel began firing illuminating flares over the camps long into the night; according to a Dutch nurse, the camp was as bright as "a sports stadium lit up for a football game"."}} During the night, the Israeli forces fired illuminating flares over the area. According to a Dutch nurse, the camp was as bright as "a sports stadium during a football game".<ref>''The New York Times'', 26 September 1982. in Claremont Research p. 76</ref>{{full citation needed|date=January 2025}}
At 19:30, the Israeli Cabinet convened and was informed that the Phalangist commanders had been informed that their men must participate in the operation and fight, and enter the extremity of Sabra, while the IDF would guarantee the success of their operation though not participate in it. The Phalangists were to go in there "with their own methods". After Gemayel's assassination there were two possibilities, either the Phalange would collapse or they would undertake revenge, having killed Druze for that reason earlier that day. With regard to this second possibility, it was noted, 'it will be an eruption the likes of which has never been seen; I can already see in their eyes what they are waiting for.' 'Revenge' was what Bachir Gemayel's brother had called for at the funeral earlier. [[David Levy (Israeli politician)|Levy]] commented: 'the Phalangists are already entering a certain neighborhood—and I know what the meaning of revenge is for them, what kind of slaughter. Then no one will believe we went in to create order there, and we will bear the blame. Therefore, I think that we are liable here to get into a situation in which we will be blamed, and our explanations will not stand up ..."{{sfn|Kahan|Barak|Efrat|1983|p=14}} The press release that followed reads:
<blockquote>In the wake of the assassination of the President-elect Bashir Jemayel, the I.D.F. has seized positions in West Beirut in order to forestall the danger of violence, bloodshed and chaos, as some 2,000 terrorists, equipped with modern and heavy weapons, have remained in Beirut, in flagrant violation of the evacuation agreement.</blockquote>
An Israeli intelligence officer present in the forward post, wishing to obtain information about the Phalangists' activities, ordered two distinct actions to find out what was happening. The first failed to turn up anything. The second resulted in a report at 20:00 from the roof, stated that the Phalangists' liaison officer had heard from an operative inside the camp that he held 45 people and asked what he should do with him. The liaison officer told him to more or less "Do the will of God." The Intelligence Officer received this report at approximately 20:00 from the person on the roof who heard the conversation. He did not pass on the report.{{sfn|Kahan|Barak|Efrat|1983|p=12}}
At roughly the same time or a little earlier at 19:00, Lieutenant Elul testified that he had overheard a radio conversation between one of the militia men in the camp and his commander Hobeika in which the former asking what he was to do with 50 women and children who had been taken prisoner. Hobeika's reply was: "This is the last time you're going to ask me a question like that; you know exactly what to do." Other Phalangists on the roof started laughing. Amongst the Israelis there was Brigadier General [[Amos Yaron|Yaron]], Divisional Commander, who asked Lieutenant Elul, his Chef de Bureau, what the laughter was about; Elul translated what Hobeika had said. Yaron then had a five-minute conversation, in English, with Hobeika. What was said is unknown.<ref name="Accused" />{{sfn|Kahan|Barak|Efrat|1983|p=12}}
The Kahan Commission determined that the evidence pointed to 'two different and separate reports', noting that Yaron maintained that he thought they referred to the same incident, and that it concerned 45 "dead terrorists". At the same time, 20:00, a third report came in from liaison officer G. of the Phalangists who in the presence of numerous Israeli officers, including general Yaron, in the dining room, stated that within 2 hours the Phalangists had killed 300 people, including civilians. He returned sometime later and changed the number from 300 to 120.{{sfn|Kahan|Barak|Efrat|1983|p=13}}
At 20:40, General Yaron held a briefing, and after it the Divisional Intelligence Officer stated that it appeared no terrorists were in the Shatila camp, and that the Phalangists were in two minds as to what to do with the women, children and old people they had massed together, either to lead them somewhere else or that they were told, as the liaison officer was overheard saying, to 'do what your heart tells you, because everything comes from God.' Yaron interrupted the officer and said he'd checked and that 'they have no problems at all,' and that with regard to the people, 'It will not, will not harm them.' Yaron later testified he had been sceptical of the reports and had in any case told the Phalangists not to harm civilians.{{sfn|Kahan|Barak|Efrat|1983|p=23}} At 21:00 Maj. Amos Gilad predicted during a discussion at Northern Command that, rather than a cleansing of terrorists, what would take place was a massacre, informing higher commanders that already between 120 and 300 had already been killed by that time.<ref>{{cite news |last=Morris |first=Benny |author-link=Benny Morris |url=https://www.haaretz.com/life/books/.premium-the-idf-papers-that-show-what-sharon-hid-in-the-lebanon-war-1.5867371 |title=The Israeli Army Papers That Show What Ariel Sharon Hid From the Cabinet in the First Lebanon War |work=[[Haaretz]] |date=2 March 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231202014010/https://www.haaretz.com/life/books/2018-03-02/ty-article/.premium/the-idf-papers-that-show-what-sharon-hid-in-the-lebanon-war/0000017f-f65b-ddde-abff-fe7ff37e0000 |archive-date=2 December 2023}}</ref>
At 23:00 the same evening, a report was sent to the IDF headquarters in East Beirut, reporting the killings of 300 people, including civilians. The report was forwarded to headquarters in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and to the office of the Bureau Chief of the director of Military Intelligence, Lt. Col. Hevroni, at 05:30 the following day where it was seen by more than 20 senior Israeli officers. It was then forwarded to his home by 06:15.{{sfn|Shahid|2002|pp=40–41}}{{sfn|Kahan|Barak|Efrat|1983|p=16}} That same morning an IDF historian copied down a note, which later disappeared, which he had found in the Northern Command situation room in Aley.
<blockquote>During the night the Phalangists entered the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps. Even though it was agreed that they would not harm civilians, they 'butchered.' They did not operate in orderly fashion but dispersed. They had casualties, including two killed. They will organize to operate in a more orderly manner—we will see to it that they are moved into the area."{{sfn|Kahan|Barak|Efrat|1983|p=15}}</blockquote>
Early on that morning, between 08:00 and 09:00, several IDF soldiers stationed nearby noted killings were being conducted against the camp refugees. A deputy tank commander some {{convert|200|yd|m|order=flip}} away, Lieutenant Grabowski, saw two Phalangists beating two young men, who were then taken back into the camp, after which shots rang out, and the soldiers left. Sometime later, he saw the Phalangists had killed a group of five women and children. When he expressed a desire to make report, the tank crew said they had already heard a communication informing the battalion commander that civilians had been killed, and that the latter had replied, "We know, it's not to our liking, and don't interfere."{{sfn|Kahan|Barak|Efrat|1983|p=17}}
At around 08:00, military correspondent [[Ze'ev Schiff]] received a tip-off a source in the General Staff in Tel Aviv that there had been a slaughter in the camps. Checking round for some hours, he got no confirmation other than that there "there's something." At 11:00 he met with [[Mordechai Tzipori]], Minister of Communications and conveyed his information. Unable to reach Military Intelligence by phone, he got in touch with [[Yitzhak Shamir]] at 11:19 asking him to check reports of a Phalangist slaughter in the camps.{{sfn|Kahan|Barak|Efrat|1983|p=}}{{page needed|date=September 2022}} Shamir testified that from his recollection the main thing Tzipori had told him of was that 3/4 IDF soldiers killed, no mention of a massacre or slaughter, as opposed to a "rampage" had been made. He made no check because his impression was that the point of the information was to keep him updated on IDF losses.{{sfn|Kahan|Barak|Efrat|1983|pp=16–17}} At a meeting with American diplomats at 12:30 Shamir made no mention of what Tzipori told him, saying he expected that he would hear from [[Ariel Sharon]], the Military Intelligence chief and the American Morris Draper about the situation in West Beirut,{{sfn|Kahan|Barak|Efrat|1983|p=17}} At that noontime meeting Sharon insisted that "terrorists" needed "mopping up."<ref name="Anziska" /> Americans pressed for the intervention of the Lebanese National Army, and for an IDF withdrawal immediately. Sharon replied:
<blockquote>I just don't understand, what are you looking for? Do you want the terrorists to stay? Are you afraid that somebody will think that you were in collusion with us? Deny it. We denied it,<ref name="Anziska" /></blockquote>
adding that nothing would happen except perhaps for a few more terrorists being killed, which would be a benefit to all. Shamir and Sharon finally agreed to a gradual withdrawal, at the end of Rosh Hashana, two days later. Draper then warned them:
<blockquote>Sure, the I.D.F. is going to stay in West Beirut and they will let the Lebanese go and kill the Palestinians in the camps.<ref name="Anziska" /></blockquote>
Sharon replied:
<blockquote>So, we'll kill them. They will not be left there. You are not going to save them. You are not going to save these groups of the international terrorism.. . If you don't want the Lebanese to kill them, we will kill them.<ref name="Anziska" /></blockquote>
In the afternoon, before 16:00, Lieutenant Grabowski had one of his men ask a Phalangist why they were killing civilians, and was told that pregnant women will give birth to children who will grow up to be terrorists.{{sfn|Kahan|Barak|Efrat|1983|p=17}}
At Beirut airport at 16:00 journalist [[Ron Ben-Yishai]] heard from several Israeli officers that they had heard that killings had taken place in the camps. At 11:30 he telephoned Ariel Sharon to report on the rumours, and was told by Sharon that he had already heard of the stories from the Chief of Staff.{{sfn|Kahan|Barak|Efrat|1983|p=}}{{page needed|date=September 2022}}
At 16:00 in a meeting with the Phalangist staff, with Mossad present, the Israeli Chief of Staff said he had a "positive impression" of their behavior in the field and from what the Phalangists reported, and asked them to continue 'mopping up the empty camps' until 5 am, whereupon they must desist due to American pressure. According to the Kahan Commission investigation, neither side explicitly mentioned to each other reports or rumours about the way civilians were being treated in the camp.{{sfn|Kahan|Barak|Efrat|1983|p=}}{{page needed|date=September 2022}} Between 18:00 and 20:00, Israeli Foreign Ministry personnel in Beirut and in Israel began receiving various reports from U.S. representatives that the Phalangists had been observed in the camps and that their presence was likely to cause problems. On returning to Israel, the Chief of Staff spoke to Ariel Sharon between 20:00 and 21:00, and according to Sharon, informed him that the "Lebanese had gone too far", and that "the Christians had harmed the civilian population more than was expected." This, he testified, was the first he had ever heard of Phalangist irregularities in the camps.{{sfn|Kahan|Barak|Efrat|1983|p=19}} The Chief of Staff denied they had discussed any killings "beyond what had been expected".{{sfn|Kahan|Barak|Efrat|1983|p=19}}
Later in the afternoon, a meeting was held between the Israeli Chief of Staff and the Phalangist staff.
On the morning of Friday, 17 September, the Israeli Army surrounding Sabra and Shatila ordered the Phalange to halt their operation, concerned about reports of a massacre.<ref name="Accused" />
==
[[File:War Sparks Memories of '82 Massacre Among Palestinians in Lebanon ｜ VOANews.webm|thumb|[[Voice of America]] 2023 report about survivor's memories]]
On 17 September, while Sabra and Shatila still were sealed off, a few independent observers managed to enter. Among them were a Norwegian journalist and diplomat [[Gunnar Flakstad]], who observed Phalangists during their cleanup operations, removing dead bodies from destroyed houses in the Shatila camp.<ref>''Aftenposten'' Middle East correspondent Harbo was also quoted with the same information on ABC News "Close up, Beirut Massacres", broadcast 7 January 1983.</ref>
Many of the bodies found had been severely mutilated. Young men had been [[castration|castrated]], some were [[scalping|scalped]], and some had the [[Christian cross]] carved into their bodies.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/1310100/Syrians-aid-Butcher-of-Beirut-to-hide-from-justice.html |title=Syrians aid 'Butcher of Beirut' to hide from justice |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |date=17 June 2001 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240414235123/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/1310100/Syrians-aid-Butcher-of-Beirut-to-hide-from-justice.html |archive-date=14 April 2024}}</ref>
[[Janet Lee Stevens]], an American journalist, later wrote to her husband, Dr. Franklin Lamb, "I saw dead women in their houses with their skirts up to their waists and their legs spread apart; dozens of young men shot after being lined up against an alley wall; children with their throats slit, a pregnant woman with her stomach chopped open, her eyes still wide open, her blackened face silently screaming in horror; countless babies and toddlers who had been stabbed or ripped apart and who had been thrown into garbage piles."<ref>{{cite web |first=Franklin |last=Lamb |url=http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2010/997/special.htm#1 |title=Remembering Janet Lee Stevens, martyr for the Palestinian refugees |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110403135700/http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2010/997/special.htm#1 |archive-date=3 April 2011}}</ref>
Before the massacre, it was reported that the leader of the PLO, Yasir Arafat, had requested the return of international forces, from Italy, France and the United States, to Beirut to protect civilians. Those forces had just supervised the departure of Arafat and his PLO fighters from Beirut. Italy expressed 'deep concerns' about 'the new Israeli advance', but no action was taken to return the forces to Beirut.<ref name="nytimes">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/09/17/world/arafat-demands-3-nations-return-peace-force-to-beirut.html?scp=1&sq=henry+kamm+september+17+1982&st=nyt |title=Arafat Demands 3 Nations Return Peace Force to Beirut |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=17 September 1982 |access-date=16 August 2015 |last1=Kamm |first1=Henry |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231012184656/https://www.nytimes.com/1982/09/17/world/arafat-demands-3-nations-return-peace-force-to-beirut.html?scp=1&sq=henry+kamm+september+17+1982&st=nyt |archive-date=12 October 2023}}</ref> ''The New York Times'' reported in September 1982:
<blockquote>Yasir Arafat, leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, demanded today that the United States, France and Italy send their troops back to Beirut to protect its inhabitants against Israel...''The dignity of three armies and the honor of their countries is involved'', Mr. Arafat said at his news conference. ''I ask Italy, France and the United States: What of your promise to protect the inhabitants of Beirut?''</blockquote>
In interviews with film director [[Lokman Slim]] in 2005, some of the [[Christianity in Lebanon|Lebanese Christian]] militia fighters reported that, prior to the massacre, the IDF took them to training camps in Israel and showed them documentaries about the Holocaust.<ref name="training with history" /> The Israelis told the Lebanese fighters that the same would happen to them too, as a minority in Lebanon, if the fighters did not take action against the Palestinians.<ref name="training with history">{{cite news |last1=Rmeileh |first1=Rami |title=Sabra & Shatila echoes past & ongoing Palestinian suffering |url=https://www.newarab.com/opinion/sabra-shatila-echoes-past-ongoing-palestinian-suffering |access-date=6 June 2024 |work=[[The New Arab]] |date=18 September 2023 |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240606060114/https://www.newarab.com/opinion/sabra-shatila-echoes-past-ongoing-palestinian-suffering |archive-date=6 June 2024}}</ref> The film was called ''"Massaker"'', it featured six perpetrators of the Sabra and Shatila massacre, and it was awarded the ''Fipresci Prize'' at the 2005 Berlinale.<ref name="Massaker">{{cite news |last1=Agencies |first1=The New Arab Staff & |title=Lokman Slim: The daring Lebanese activist, admired intellectual |url=https://www.newarab.com/news/lokman-slim-daring-lebanese-activist-admired-intellectual |access-date=6 June 2024 |work= [[The New Arab]] |date=6 February 2021 |language=en |quote= Their film "Massaker" — which studied six perpetrators of the 1982 Christian militia massacres of 1,000 people at the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian camps in Beirut — was awarded the Fipresci Prize at the 2005 Berlinale. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240606062916/https://www.newarab.com/news/lokman-slim-daring-lebanese-activist-admired-intellectual |archive-date=6 June 2024}}</ref>
==Number of victims==
[[File:SabraShatilaMemorial.jpg|thumb|Memorial in Sabra, South Beirut]]
* [[Palestinian Red Crescent]] estimated that over 2,000 had been killed. 1,200 death certificates were issued to anyone who produced three witnesses claiming a family member disappeared during the time of the massacre.{{sfn|Schiff|Ya'ari|1985|p=[https://archive.org/details/israelslebanonwa00zeev/page/282 282]}}
* [[Bayan Nuwayhed|Bayan Nuwayhed al-Hout]] in her ''Sabra and Shatila: September 1982'' gives a minimum consisting of 1,300 named victims based on detailed comparison of 17 victim lists and other supporting evidence, and estimates an even higher total of 3,500.{{sfn|Nuwayhed al-Hout|2004|p=296}}
* [[Robert Fisk]] wrote, "After three days of rape, fighting and brutal executions, militias finally leave the camps with 1,700 dead".<ref>{{cite news |last=Fisk |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Fisk |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/the-forgotten-massacre-8139930.html |title=The forgotten massacre |work=[[The Independent]] |date=15 September 2002 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240608212929/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/the-forgotten-massacre-8139930.html |archive-date=8 June 2024}}</ref>
* In his book published soon after the massacre, the Israeli journalist [[Amnon Kapeliouk]] of ''[[Le Monde Diplomatique]]'', arrived at about 2,000 bodies disposed of after the massacre from official and Red Cross sources and "very roughly" estimated 1,000 to 1,500 other victims disposed of by the Phalangists themselves to a total of 3,000–3,500.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kapeliouk |first=Amnon |author-link=Amnon Kapeliouk |title=Enquête sur un massacre: Sabra et Chatila |language=fr |trans-title=Investigation into a massacre: Sabra and Shatila |publisher=Seuil |year=1982 |isbn=2-02-006391-3 |translator-first=Khalil |translator-last=Jehshan |url=http://www.geocities.com/indictsharon/Kapeliouk.doc |access-date=15 July 2005 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060207230421/http://www.geocities.com/indictsharon/Kapeliouk.doc |archive-date=7 February 2006}}</ref>
* The Lebanese army's chief prosecutor, Assad Germanos, investigated the killings, but following orders from above, did not summon Lebanese witnesses. Also Palestinian survivors from the camps were afraid to testify, and Phalangist fighters were expressly forbidden to give testimony.<ref>{{cite web|title= Lebanon's Massacre Inquiry: Few Answers After 4 Months|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/01/30/world/lebanon-s-massacre-inquiry-few-answers-after-4-months.html|work=The New York Times|last=Friedman |first=Thomas L. |author-link=Thomas Friedman|date=30 January 1983}}</ref> Germanos' report concluded that 460 people had been killed (including 15 women and 20 children.)<ref>{{cite news |last1=Denton |first1=Herbert H. |title=Lebanese Inquiry Said to Blame Israel for Massacre in Camps |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1983/06/21/lebanese-inquiry-said-to-blame-israel-for-massacre-in-camps/f4646645-80a8-4fc5-a0ab-efbcd8c6c6ac/ |access-date=February 4, 2025 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |date=June 21, 1983 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170828093041/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1983/06/21/lebanese-inquiry-said-to-blame-israel-for-massacre-in-camps/f4646645-80a8-4fc5-a0ab-efbcd8c6c6ac/ |archive-date=August 28, 2017 |quote=The inquiry reportedly determined that there had been 460 victims of the 48-hour massacre and lists the names of 269 Palestinians, 119 Lebanese, 11 Syrians, 32 Pakistanis or Iranians, two Egyptians, two Algerians and 25 unidentified persons.}}</ref>
* Israeli intelligence estimated 700–800 dead.<ref>{{cite web|title=Violence de masse et Résistance - Réseau de recherche|url=https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/fr/document/sabra-and-chatila.html|last=Aude|first=Signoles|date=14 March 2008|work=Sciences Pro}}</ref>
==Role of various parties==
The primary responsibility for the massacre is generally attributed to Elie Hobeika. [[Robert Hatem|Robert Maroun Hatem]], Elie Hobeika's bodyguard, stated in his book ''From Israel to Damascus'' that Hobeika ordered the massacre of civilians in defiance of Israeli instructions to behave like a "dignified" army.<ref name="online" />
Hobeika was assassinated by a car bomb in Beirut on 24 January 2002. Lebanese and Arab commentators blamed Israel for the murder of Hobeika, with alleged Israeli motive that Hobeika would be "apparently poised to testify before the Belgian court about Sharon's role in the massacre"<ref name="Campagna">{{cite journal |last=Campagna |first=Joel |author-link= Joel Campagna |date=April 2002 |url=http://www.worldpress.org/Mideast/460.cfm |title=The Usual Suspects |journal=[[World Press Review]] |volume=49 |number=4 |access-date=24 February 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240702055638/https://www.worldpress.org/Mideast/460.cfm |archive-date=2 July 2024}}</ref> (see section above). Prior to his assassination, Elie Hobeika had stated "I am very interested that the [Belgian] trial starts because my innocence is a core issue."<ref name="guardian_obit" />
According to [[Alain Menargues]], on 15 September, an Israeli special operations group of [[Sayeret Matkal]] entered the camp to liquidate a number of Palestinian cadres, and left the same day. It was followed the next day, by "killers" from the Sa'ad Haddad's [[South Lebanon Army]], before the Lebanese Forces units of Elie Hobeika entered the camps.{{sfn|Menargues|2004|pp=469–470}}{{sfn|Traboulsi|2007|p=218|ps=: "On Wednesday 15th, units of the elite Israeli army 'reconnaissance' force, the Sayeret Mat`kal, which had already carried out the assassination of the three PLO leaders in Beirut, entered the camps with a mission to liquidate a selected number of Palestinian cadres. The next day, two units of killers were introduced into the camps, troops from Sa'd Haddad's Army of South Lebanon, attached to the Israeli forces in Beirut, and the LF security units of Elie Hobeika known as the Apaches, led by Marun Mash'alani, Michel Zuwayn and Georges Melko"}}<ref name="AvonKhatchadourian2012">{{cite book |first1=Dominique |last1=Avon |first2=Anaïs-Trissa |last2=Khatchadourian |first3=Jane Marie |last3=Todd |title=Hezbollah: A History of the "Party of God" |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jOZ3Aqf6BzoC |date=2012 |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |isbn=978-0-674-07031-8 |page=22 |quote=That triggered the massacre of Palestinians in Sabra and Shatila camps in three waves, according to Alain Menargues, first at the hands of special Israeli units, whose troops reoccupied West Beirut; then by the groups in the SLA; and finally by men from the Jihaz al-Amn, a Lebanese forces special group led by Elie Hobeika.}}</ref>
The US responsibility was considerable;{{sfn|Traboulsi|2007|p=219}} indeed the Arab states and the PLO blamed the US.<ref name="Chomsky1999">{{cite book |first=Noam |last=Chomsky |author-link=Noam Chomsky |title=The Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aHphMCIkhK0C&pg=PA377 |year=1999 |publisher=[[Pluto Press]] |isbn=978-0-7453-1530-0 |page=377}}</ref> The negotiations under the mediation of US diplomat [[Philip Habib]], which oversaw the withdrawal of the PLO from Beirut, had assigned responsibility to the American-led Multinational Force for guaranteeing the safety of those non-combatant Palestinians who remained. The US administration was criticized for the early withdrawal of the Multinational Force, a criticism which [[George Shultz]] accepted later.{{sfn|Traboulsi|2007|p=219}} Shultz recounted in his memoirs that "The brutal fact is that we are partially responsible. We took the Israelis and Lebanese at their word".<ref name="Shultz2010">{{cite book |first=George P. |last=Shultz |author-link=George Shultz |title=Turmoil and Triumph: Diplomacy, Power, and the Victory of the American Deal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ocPU-S9gloC&pg=PT31 |date=2010 |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |isbn=978-1-4516-2311-6}}</ref> On 20 September the Multinational Force was redeployed to Beirut.{{sfn|Traboulsi|2007|p=219}}
== Aftermath ==
===U.N. condemnation===
{{See also|Palestinian genocide accusation}}
On 16 December 1982, the [[United Nations General Assembly]] condemned the massacre and declared it to be an act of [[genocide]].<ref>[http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/RESOLUTION/GEN/NR0/426/01/IMG/NR042601.pdf?OpenElement U.N. General Assembly, Resolution 37/123, adopted between 16 and 20 December 1982.] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120429183049/http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/RESOLUTION/GEN/NR0/426/01/IMG/NR042601.pdf?OpenElement |date=29 April 2012 }} Retrieved 4 January 2010.</ref>
The voting record<ref>{{cite web |url=http://unbisnet.un.org:8080/ipac20/ipac.jsp?profile=voting&index=.VM&term=ares37123d#focus |title=Voting Summary U.N. General Assembly Resolution 37/123D |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604072753/http://unbisnet.un.org:8080/ipac20/ipac.jsp?profile=voting&index=.VM&term=ares37123d#focus |archive-date=4 June 2011 |access-date=4 January 2010}}</ref><ref name="LK-37">{{cite book |last=Kuper |first=Leo |author-link=Leo Kuper |chapter=Theoretical Issues Relating to Genocide: Uses and Abuses |editor-first=George J. |editor-last=Andreopoulos |title=Genocide: Conceptual and Historical Dimensions |publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania Press]] |date=1997 |isbn=0-8122-1616-4 |page=37}}</ref>{{sfn|Schabas|2000|p=455}} on section D of Resolution 37/123 was: yes: 123; no: 0; abstentions: 22; non-voting: 12.
The delegate for Canada stated: "The term genocide cannot, in our view, be applied to this particular inhuman act".{{sfn|Schabas|2000|p=541}} The delegate of [[Singapore]] – voting 'yes' – added: "My delegation regrets the use of the term 'an act of genocide' ... [as] the term 'genocide' is used to mean acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group." Canada and Singapore questioned whether the General Assembly was competent to determine whether such an event would constitute genocide.{{sfn|Schabas|2000|p=541-542}} The Soviet Union, by contrast, asserted that: "The word for what Israel is doing on Lebanese soil is genocide. Its purpose is to destroy the Palestinians as a nation."{{sfn|Schabas|2000|p=540}} The Nicaragua delegate asserted: "It is difficult to believe that a people that suffered so much from the Nazi policy of extermination in the middle of the twentieth century would use the same fascist, genocidal arguments and methods against other peoples."{{sfn|Schabas|2000|p=541}}
The United States commented that "While the criminality of the massacre was beyond question, it was a serious and reckless misuse of language to label this tragedy genocide as defined in the [[Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide|1948 Convention]]".{{sfn|Schabas|2000|p=542}}
[[William Schabas]], director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights at the [[National University of Ireland]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nuigalway.ie/human_rights/Staff/william_schabas.html |title=Professor William A. Schabas |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070609152022/http://www.nuigalway.ie/human_rights/Staff/william_schabas.html |archive-date=9 June 2007 |website=Irish Centre for Human Rights at the [[National University of Ireland]]}}</ref> stated that "there was little discussion of the scope of the term genocide, which had obviously been chosen to embarrass Israel rather than out of any concern with legal precision".{{sfn|Schabas|2000|p=541}}
===Irish Commission (MacBride)===
The independent commission headed by Seán MacBride looking into reported violations of International Law by Israel, however, did find that the concept of genocide applied to the case as the intention of those behind the massacre was "the deliberate destruction of the national and cultural rights and identity of the Palestinian people".{{sfn|Schabas|2000|p=235}} Individual Jews throughout the world also denounced the massacre as genocide.{{sfn|Hirst|2010|p=153}}
The MacBride Commission's report, ''Israel in Lebanon'', concluded that the Israeli authorities or forces were responsible in the massacres and other killings that have been reported to have been carried out by Lebanese militiamen in Sabra and Shatila in the Beirut area between 16 and 18 September.{{sfn|MacBride|Asmal|Bercusson|Falk|1983|pp=191–192}} Unlike the Israeli commission, the McBride Commission did not work with the idea of separate degrees of responsibility, viz., direct and indirect.
===Kahan Commission (Israel)===
Israel's own [[Kahan commission]] found that only "indirect" responsibility befitted Israel's involvement. For British journalist David Hirst, Israel crafted the concept of indirect responsibility so as to make its involvement and responsibility seem smaller. He said of the commission's verdict that it was only by means of errors and omissions in the analysis of the massacre that the commission was able to reach the conclusion of indirect responsibility.{{sfn|Hirst|2010|p=}}{{page needed|date=July 2024}}
The [[Kahan Commission]] concluded Israeli Defense minister Sharon bore personal responsibility "for ignoring the danger of bloodshed and revenge" and "not taking appropriate measures to prevent bloodshed". Sharon's negligence in protecting the civilian population of Beirut, which had come under Israeli control, amounted to a non-fulfilment of a duty with which the Defense Minister was charged, and it was recommended that Sharon be dismissed as Defense Minister.{{sfn|Kahan|Barak|Efrat|1983|p=49}}{{sfn|Schiff|Ya'ari|1985|pp=[https://archive.org/details/israelslebanonwa0000schi/page/283 283–284]}}
At first, Sharon refused to resign, and Begin refused to fire him. It was only after the death of [[Emil Grunzweig]] after a grenade was tossed by a right-wing Israeli into the dispersing crowd of a [[Peace Now]] protest march, which also injured ten others, that a compromise was reached: Sharon would resign as Defense Minister, but remain in the Cabinet as a [[Minister without Portfolio|minister without portfolio]]. Notwithstanding the dissuading conclusions of the Kahan report, Sharon would later become [[Prime Minister of Israel]].<ref>{{cite web |first=Chris |last=Tolworthy |author-link=Chris Tolworthy |url=http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/MiddleEast/TerrorInUSA/faq/Sabra.asp |title=Sabra and Shatila massacres – why do we ignore them? |work=September 11th and Terrorism FAQ |publisher=Global Issues |date=March 2002 |access-date=25 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240226100005/https://www.globalissues.org/article/333/sabra-and-shatila-massacres-why-do-we-ignore-them |archive-date=26 February 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Llewellyn |first=Tim |author-link=Tim Llewellyn |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/events/israel_at_50/history/78655.stm |title=Israel and the PLO |work=[[BBC News]] |publisher=BBC |date=20 April 1998 |access-date=20 September 2007 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240622012255/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/events/israel_at_50/history/78655.stm |archive-date=22 June 2024}}</ref>
The Kahan commission also recommended the dismissal of Director of Military Intelligence [[Yehoshua Saguy]],<ref>{{cite news |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DEFDE1638F936A2575BC0A965948260 |title=Around the world; Israeli General Resigns From Army |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=15 August 1983 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231012022535/https://www.nytimes.com/1983/08/15/world/around-the-world-israeli-general-resigns-from-army.html |archive-date=12 October 2023}}</ref>{{sfn|Kahan|Barak|Efrat|1983|p=49}} and the effective promotion freeze of Division Commander Brig. Gen. [[Amos Yaron]] for at least three years.{{sfn|Kahan|Barak|Efrat|1983|p=49}}
On 25 September 1982, Peace Now, which had been established 4 years previously, organised in Tel Aviv a protest demonstration which brought to the streets some 10% of Israel's population, an estimated 400,000 participants.<ref name="CIE">[https://israeled.org/israelis-protest-sabra-and-shatila-massacre/?noamp=mobile "Israelis Protest Sabra and Shatila Massacre"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241008001858/https://israeled.org/israelis-protest-sabra-and-shatila-massacre/?noamp=mobile |date=8 October 2024 }}, Center for Israel Education, 25 September 1982, accessed 8 September 2024.</ref> They expressed their anger and demanded an investigation into Israel's part and responsibility in the massacre.<ref name="CIE" /> It would remain Israel's largest street protest until the [[2023 Israeli judicial reform protests]]<ref name="twih">{{cite news |author= Tamara Zieve |title= This Week In History: Masses protest Sabra, Shatila |newspaper= The Jerusalem Post |date= 23 September 2012 |url= https://m.jpost.com/features/in-thespotlight/this-week-in-history-masses-protest-sabra-shatila#google_vignette |access-date= 8 September 2024 |archive-date= 6 December 2016 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20161206024734/http://m.jpost.com/Features/In-Thespotlight/This-Week-In-History-Masses-protest-Sabra-Shatila#google_vignette |url-status= live }}</ref> and 7 September 2024 rally for the [[Gaza war hostage crisis|liberation of hostages]] in exchange for a cease-fire deal with [[Hamas]].<ref name="500k">{{cite news |last1=Lehmann |first1=Noam |last2=Schejter |first2=Iddo |last3=Kirsch |first3=Elana |date=8 September 2024 |title=Organizers claim largest-ever rally in Tel Aviv as calls for hostage deal intensify. Groups behind demonstrations estimate 500,000 at main protest, 250,000 at other rallies around country |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/organizers-claim-largest-ever-rally-in-tel-aviv-as-calls-for-hostage-deal-intensify/ |access-date=8 September 2024 |newspaper=[[Times of Israel]]}}</ref>
An opinion poll indicated that 51.7% of the Israeli public thought the commission was too harsh, and only 2.17% too lenient.{{sfn|Hirst|2010|p=168}}
===Post-war testimonies by Lebanese Forces operatives===
Lokhman Slim and Monika Borgman's ''Massaker'', based on 90 hours of interviews with the LF soldiers who participated in the massacre, gives the participants' memories of how they were drawn into the militia, trained with the Israeli army and unleashed on the camps to take revenge for the murder of Bachir Gemayel. The motivations are varied, from blaming beatings from their fathers in childhood, the effects of the brutalization of war, obedience to one's leaders, a belief that the camp women would breed future terrorists, and the idea three-quarters of the residents were terrorists. Others spoke of their violence without traces of repentance.<ref>{{cite book |first=Sune |last=Haugbolle |author-link=:da:Sune Haugbølle |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j9C3_0d7vIQC&pg=PA144 |title=War and Memory in Lebanon |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |date=2010 |pages=144–145 |isbn=978-0-521-19902-5 |access-date=22 February 2020 |archive-date=8 October 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241008001754/https://books.google.com/books?id=j9C3_0d7vIQC&pg=PA144#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref>
=== Lawsuits against Sharon ===
==== Sharon's libel suit ====
Ariel Sharon sued [[Time (magazine)|''Time'']] magazine for [[libel]] in American and Israeli courts in a $50 million suit, after ''Time'' published a story in its 21 February 1983, issue, implying that Sharon had "reportedly discussed with the Gemayels the need for the Phalangists to take revenge" for Bachir's assassination.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/archive/collections/0,21428,c_ariel_sharon,00.shtml |title=Time Collection: Ariel Sharon |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |access-date=25 February 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060116050853/http://www.time.com/time/archive/collections/0,21428,c_ariel_sharon,00.shtml |archive-date=16 January 2006 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The jury found the article false and defamatory, although ''Time'' won the suit in the U.S. court because Sharon's defense failed to establish that the magazine's editors and writers had "acted out of [[malice (legal term)|malice]]", as required under U.S. libel law.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://brookekroeger.com/sharon-loses-libel-suit-time-cleared-of-malice/ |title=Sharon Loses Libel Suit; Time Cleared of Malice |date=25 January 1985 |access-date=25 February 2022 |first=Brooke W. |last=Kroeger |author-link=Brooke Kroeger |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240303053743/https://brookekroeger.com/sharon-loses-libel-suit-time-cleared-of-malice/ |archive-date=3 March 2024}}</ref>
==== Relatives of victims sue Sharon ====
After Sharon's 2001 election as Israeli Prime Minister, relatives of the victims of the massacre filed a lawsuit in the Belgian courts.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Flint |first=Julie |title=Vanished victims of Israelis return to accuse Sharon |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/nov/25/israelandthepalestinians.lebanon |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=25 November 2001 |access-date=13 November 2012 |quote=The fate of the disappeared of Sabra and Chatila will come back to haunt Sharon when a Belgian court hears a suit brought by their relatives alleging his involvement in the massacres. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231012022529/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/nov/25/israelandthepalestinians.lebanon |archive-date=12 October 2023}}</ref> Following diplomatic pressure from the United States, Belgium tightened its jurisdictional requirements, which led to the case's dismissal on 24 September 2003 since none of the plaintiffs had Belgian nationality at the start of the case.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.redress.org/publications/UJ%20Update%20-%20Dec03%20-%20final.pdf |title=Universal Jurisdiction Update |date=December 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080910230718/http://www.redress.org/publications/UJ%20Update%20-%20Dec03%20-%20final.pdf |archive-date=10 September 2008 |website=Redress (London) |access-date=5 January 2010}}; section Belgium, subsection 'Shabra and Shatila'.</ref>
=== Reprisal attacks ===
According to [[Robert Fisk]], [[Osama bin Laden]] cited the Sabra and Shatila massacre as one of the motivations for the 1996 [[Khobar Towers bombing]], in which [[al-Qaeda]] attacked an American Air Force housing complex in Saudi Arabia.<ref name="google3">{{cite book |title=Structures of Love, The: Art and Politics beyond the Transference |last=Penney |first=J. |date=2012 |publisher=[[State University of New York Press]] |isbn=978-1438439747 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RfM5eJkh3ygC&pg=PA235 |page=235 |access-date=16 August 2015 |archive-date=8 October 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241008001757/https://books.google.com/books?id=RfM5eJkh3ygC&pg=PA235#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live}}</ref>
==See also==
* [[
* [[
* [[List of massacres in Lebanon]]
* ''[[The Dream (1987 film)|Al-Manam]]'', 1987 Syrian documentary taking place in Palestinian refugee camps prior to the massacre. Many of the subjects interviewed were killed in the massacre
* ''[[Waltz with Bashir]]'', 2008 Israeli film by [[Ari Folman]] on events surrounding the massacre
==
{{notelist-la}}
==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}
=== Works cited ===
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book |last=Alpher |first=Yossi |author-link=Yossi Alpher |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eCxyBgAAQBAJ |title=Periphery: Israel's Search for Middle East Allies |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]] |date=2015 |isbn=978-1-4422-3102-3 |access-date=22 February 2020 |archive-date=11 March 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240311180643/https://books.google.com/books?id=eCxyBgAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}
* {{cite book |last=Becker |first=Jillian |author-link=Jillian Becker |title=PLO: The Rise and Fall of the Palestine Liberation Organization |publisher=AuthorHouse |year=1984 |isbn=978-1-4918-4435-9}}
* {{cite book |last=Fisk |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Fisk |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VrXpeELOUNsC |title=Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |date=2001 |isbn=978-0-19-280130-2}}
* {{cite book |last=Gonzalez |first=Nathan |author-link=Nathan Gonzalez |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HypnAgAAQBAJ |title=The Sunni-Shia Conflict: Understanding Sectarian Violence in the Middle East |publisher=Nortia Media Ltd |date=2013 |isbn=978-0-9842252-1-7}}
* {{cite book |last=Hirst |first=David |author-link=David Hirst (journalist) |year=2010 |title=Beware of small states: Lebanon, battleground of the Middle East |publisher=Nation Books |isbn=978-0-571-23741-8}}
* {{cite report |author1-link=Yitzhak Kahan |last1=Kahan |first1=Yitzhak |author2-link=Aharon Barak |last2=Barak |first2=Aharon |author3-link=:he:Yona Efrat |last3=Efrat |first3=Yona |date=1983 |title=The Commission of Inquiry into events at the refugee camps in Beirut 1983 Final Report (Authorized translation) |jstor=20692582}}
* {{Cite book |last1=MacBride |first1=Seán |author1-link=Seán MacBride |first2=A. K. |last2=Asmal |first3=B. |last3=Bercusson |first4=R. A. |last4=Falk |first5=G. de la |last5=Pradelle |first6=S. |last6=Wild |title=Israel in Lebanon: The Report of International Commission to enquire into reported violations of International Law by Israel during its invasion of the Lebanon |publisher=[[Ithaca Press]] |year=1983 |___location=London |isbn=0-903729-96-2}}
* {{cite book |last=Menargues |first=Alain |author-link=Alain Menargues |title=Secrets de la Guerre du Liban |language=fr |trans-title=Secrets of the Lebanese War |year=2004}}
* {{cite book |last=Nuwayhed al-Hout |first=Bayan |title=Sabra and Shatila September 1982 |year=2004 |publisher=[[Pluto Press]] |isbn=0-7453-2303-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=usQtAQAAIAAJ |author-link=Bayan Nuwayhed |access-date=14 November 2015 |archive-date=8 October 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241008001754/https://books.google.com/books?id=usQtAQAAIAAJ |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last=Quandt |first=William B. |author-link=William B. Quandt |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-rmCPnSghbcC |title=Peace Process: American Diplomacy and the Arab-Israeli Conflict Since 1967 |date=1993 |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |isbn=978-0-520-22374-5 |access-date=22 February 2020 |archive-date=8 October 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241008001755/https://books.google.com/books?id=-rmCPnSghbcC |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last=Schabas |first=William |author-link=William Schabas |date=2000 |title=Genocide in International Law: The Crime of Crimes |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=0521782627}}
* {{cite book |last1=Schiff |first1=Ze'ev |author1-link=Ze'ev Schiff |last2=Ya'ari |first2=Ehud |author2-link=Ehud Ya'ari |title=Israel's Lebanon War |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |year=1985 |isbn=978-0-671-60216-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/israelslebanonwa00zeev}}
* {{cite journal |last=Shahid |first=Leila |author-link=Leila Shahid |title=The Sabra and Shatila Massacres: Eye-Witness Reports |journal=[[Journal of Palestine Studies]] |volume=32 |number=1 |date=Autumn 2002 |pages=36–58 |doi=10.1525/jps.2002.32.1.36 |issn=0377-919X}}
* {{cite book |last1=Traboulsi |first1=Fawwaz |author-link=:de:Fawwaz Traboulsi |title=A History of Modern Lebanon |publisher=[[Pluto Press]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wFltAAAAMAAJ |date=2007 |isbn=9780745324371}}
{{refend}}
=== Bibliography ===
* {{cite news |last=Hamdan |first=Ajal |author-link=Amal Hamdan |date=16 September 2003 |url=http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/B26B8CE1-49E1-47FF-9ED5-8E1AE1305CC4.htm |title=Remembering Sabra and Shatila |work=[[Al Jazeera English|Aljazeera]] |access-date=4 December 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051225181635/http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/B26B8CE1-49E1-47FF-9ED5-8E1AE1305CC4.htm |archive-date=25 December 2005}}
* {{cite book |last=Klein |first=A. J. |___location=New York |date=2005 |title=Striking Back: The 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and Israel's Deadly Response |publisher=[[Random House]] |isbn=1-920769-80-3}}
* {{cite journal |last=Lewis |first=Bernard |author-link=Bernard Lewis |url=http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/21832.html |title=The New Anti-Semitism |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110908010822/http://hnn.us/blogs/entries/21832.html |archive-date=8 September 2011 |journal=The American Scholar |volume=75 |number=1 |date=Winter 2006 |pages=25–36}}. The paper is based on a lecture delivered at [[Brandeis University]] on 24 March 2004.
* {{cite book |last=Lewis |first=Bernard |author-link=Bernard Lewis |date=1999 |title=Semites and Anti-Semites: An Inquiry into Conflict and Prejudice |publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]] |isbn=0-393-31839-7}}
* {{cite book |last1=Morris |first1=Benny |author1-link=Benny Morris |last2=Black |first2=Ian |author2-link=Ian Black (journalist) |title=[[Israel's Secret Wars: A History of Israel's Intelligence Services]] |publisher=Grove |date=1991 |isbn=0-8021-1159-9}}
* {{cite news |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/1975849.stm |title=New 'evidence' in Sharon trial |date=8 May 2002 |work=[[BBC News]] |access-date=4 December 2004}}
* Shashaa, Esam (no date).
* United Nations General Assembly, ''[https://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/37/a37r123.htm A/RES/37/123(A-F). The situation in the Middle East]'' (16 December 1982). [https://web.archive.org/web/20060209114602/http://domino.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/faabb796990cf95a852560d9005240cf?OpenDocument A/RES/37/123(A-F) of 16 December 1982]
* {{cite web |last=White |first=Matthew |url=http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat3.htm |title=Secondary Wars and Atrocities of the Twentieth Century |access-date=4 December 2004}}
* {{cite book |last=Harris |first=William |date=1996 |title=Faces of Lebanon: Sects, Wars, and Global Extensions |publisher=Markus Wiener Publishers |___location=Princeton, USA |isbn=1-55876-115-2}}
==Further reading==
* {{cite book |last=Bregman |first=Ahron |author-link=Ahron Bregman |date=2002 |title=Israel's Wars: A History Since 1947 |___location=London |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=0-415-28716-2}}
* {{cite web |title=1982: Refugees massacred in Beirut camps |website=BBC On This Day |publisher=[[BBC]] |date=17 September 1982 |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/17/newsid_2519000/2519637.stm |ref={{sfnref | BBC ON THIS DAY | 1982}} |access-date=17 June 2022}} * [https://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/17/newsid_2519000/2519637.stm BBC News archive and video]
* {{cite web |title=Sabra Shatila Massacre Photos |website=littleredbutton.com |date=9 October 2004 |url=http://www.littleredbutton.com/sabra_shatila/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041009202109/http://www.littleredbutton.com/sabra_shatila/ |archive-date=9 October 2004 |url-status=unfit |ref={{sfnref | littleredbutton.com | 2004}} |access-date=17 January 2022}}
* [[Ahmad Tamal|Tamal, Ahmad]] (no date). [https://web.archive.org/web/20041218002425/http://www.allaboutpalestine.com/sabrashatillapics.html Sabra and Shatila]. ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20041204231300/http://www.allaboutpalestine.com/index.shtml All About Palestine]''. Retrieved 4 December 2004.
* {{cite web |title=Eyewitness Lebanon |website=littleredbutton.com |date=9 October 2004 |url=http://www.littleredbutton.com/lebanon/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041009200930/http://www.littleredbutton.com/lebanon/ |archive-date=9 October 2004 |url-status=unfit | ref={{sfnref | littleredbutton.com | 2004}} |access-date=17 January 2022}}
* {{cite book |last=Chomsky |first=Noam |author-link=Noam Chomsky |date=1989 |url=http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/ni/ni-c06-s06.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20000607162654/http://www.zmag.org/chomsky/ni/ni-c06-s06.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2000-06-07 |title=Necessary Illusions: Thought control in democratic societies |publisher=[[South End Press]] |isbn=0-89608-366-7}}
* {{cite web |last=Anziska |first=Seth |title=Sabra and Shatila: New Revelations |website=The New York Review of Books |date=26 April 2021 |url=https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/09/17/sabra-and-shatila-new-revelations/ |access-date=17 January 2022}}
* {{cite web |last=Fisk |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Fisk |title=Sabra and Shatila |website=Countercurrents |url=https://www.countercurrents.org/pa-fisk180903.htm |access-date=17 January 2022}}
* {{cite news |last=Fisk |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Fisk |title=Another war on terror. Another proxy army. Another mysterious |work=[[The Independent]] |date=28 November 2001 |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/another-war-on-terror-another-proxy-army-another-mysterious-massacre-and-now-after-19-years-perhaps-the-truth-at-last-9255784.html |access-date=17 January 2022 |ref=none}}
* {{cite news |last=Mason |first=Barnaby |author-link=Barnaby Mason |date=17 April 2002 |url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1935198.stm |title=Analysis: 'War crimes' on West Bank |work=[[BBC News]] |access-date=4 December 2004}}
* [http://www.ism-france.org/news/article.php?id=5470&type=analyse&lesujet=Histoire Sabra and Shatila, the unforgivable slaughter] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080206001447/http://www.ism-france.org/news/article.php?id=5470&type=analyse&lesujet=Histoire |date=6 February 2008 }} {{in lang|fr}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140911212745/https://www.archives.gov.il/ArchiveGov_Eng/Publications/ElectronicPirsum/KahanCommission/ The Kahan Commission on Sabra and Shatila Massacre], published by Israel State Archives
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