On This Day – 42 Years since the Sabra and Shatila Massacre

 By Palestine Chronicle Staff

On September 16, in 1982, several thousand Palestinians at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon were brutally massacred. (Photo: File)

September 16 marks the day in 1982 when thousands of Palestinians were brutally massacred at the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps in Lebanon; an atrocity seen as one of the most heinous in modern history.

After besieging and bombarding the area for days, the Israeli-backed Lebanese phalange militias attacked, killing at least 3,000 Palestinian refugees and Lebanese civilians.

After the siege of the two camps on September 15, the Israeli army under the command of Ariel Sharon lit the skies with flares as armed Lebanese militias entered the camps through Israeli army lines and proceeded to kill everyone in their way, regardless of whether they were elderly, women, or children.

They also broke into the camp hospital and killed nurses, doctors and patients who escaped from the massacre.

Over three days, and under the watch of Sharon’s army, the militias proceeded with their slaughter until news of the massacre was leaked out of the camp and the horrifying pictures of the dead were seen throughout the world before pressure was exerted on Israel to stop the militias.

The 1983 Kahan Commission, established by the Israeli government, found that Sharon, who was Defense Minister at the time, bore “personal responsibility” for the massacre.

Despite this, Sharon later became Prime Minister of Israel in 2001.

On December 16, 1982, the UN General Assembly condemned the massacre and declared it an act of genocide.

Ongoing Genocide

Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.

The government also continues to flout a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire and has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 41,226 Palestinians have been killed, and 95,413 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.

Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.

Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.

Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.

The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.

The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.

Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.

(PC, WAFA)