The Heinous Massacre At The Palestinian Refugee Camp Sabra And Shatila In Today's History, September 16, 1982

JAKARTA - On September 16, 1982, after Israel's invasion of Lebanon, right-wing militia, Christian guerrillas from the Kataeb or Falang Party of Lebanon, stormed the refugee camps in Sabra and Shatila, West Beirut. The raid started the massacre of thousands of innocent people, most of them Palestinian civilians.

The number of victims from this incident is still being debated. Most believed, the victims reached 3,500 Palestinian and Lebanese civilians. They are mostly women, children and the elderly who were brutally murdered.

A large number of victims had gunshot wounds to the head, chest and abdomen as well as various shrapnel wounds. Some of them were mutilated before or after they were killed, according to Human Rights Watch.

"We started seeing people running, covered in blood, running scared," said a resident of Shatila, Farhat Salim Farhat, during an interview with Al Jazeera. He remembers watching Israeli soldiers throw bombs to light up the camp when the Falangs entered.

The massacre was very quiet, with the Falang people using axes to carry out the attack, recalls Farhat who was a military commander in charge of defending the camp. The victims were completely helpless after Israel expelled Syrian soldiers and fighters belonging to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Yasser Arafat from the Lebanese capital.

According to various reports, journalists who visited the area of the massacre found large piles of M-16 casings. In addition, there are boxes containing M-16 shells and Hebrew prints. Elsewhere, there were packs of Israeli chocolate wafers as well as the remains of the United States Army C rations.

Citing the BBC, the PLO's expulsion was the result of Israel's invasion of 'Operation Peace for Galilee', which was masterminded by then-Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon. Sharon said the invasion was to eradicate the "terrorist threat" posed by the Palestinian military presence in Lebanon.

Meanwhile, at the same time, the Lebanese Falang guerrilla group wants to take revenge for the assassination of newly elected Lebanese President Bachir Gemayel, who is also the leader of the Lebanese Kataeb Party. The Falang group considers that Palestinian militants carried out the murder of Gemayel.

On 30 August 1982, under the supervision of the Multinational Force, the PLO withdrew from Lebanon after weeks of fighting in West Beirut, shortly before the massacre took place. Various forces with Israel, the Falang group and possibly also the South Lebanese Army (SLA), are in the vicinity of Sabra and Shatila. Taking advantage of the fact that the Multinational Force had removed the barracks and mines that had surrounded Beirut.

Israel's advances over West Beirut after the PLO withdrawal, allowed attacks by the Falang groups against refugees in the Sabra and Shatila camps. In fact, it violates the ceasefire agreement between the various powers. Israeli soldiers surrounded Sabra and Shatila to prevent the camp residents from leaving at the request of the Falang group. After that, various acts of massacre ensued.

The massacres at Sabra and Shatila were also a direct consequence of Israel's violation of the US-brokered ceasefire and the impunity granted to Israel by the US and the international community. This tragic event is a reminder that the international community continues to fail to hold Israel accountable for its frequent violations of international law and to defend the basic human rights of the Palestinian people.

The United Nations condemns the Sabra-Shatila massacre as an act of genocide. Meanwhile Israel's fact-finding commission determined that Ariel Sharon, then Israel's Defense Minister, bore personal responsibility for the killing. Sharon later resigned from his post.

For Palestinians, the massacre of Sabra and Shatila remains a traumatic event, which is commemorated every year. Many of the survivors continue to live in Sabra and Shatila, struggling to make a living and haunted by their memories of the massacre. To this day, no one has been tried for the crimes committed.

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