ABSTRACT
The Siege of Beirut, culminating in the Sabra and Shatila massacre was a brutal, inhuman, and horrific episode in Palestinian (and Lebanese) history. Beirut was under siege from 14 June until 23 August 1982. Throughout that period the Israelis and their Phalangist allies surrounded the Palestinian and Lebanese residents. Intensive bombardment by air, land, and sea aggravated the siege, which killed 17,500 people, both Palestinian and Lebanese. It came to an end only when a U.S.-brokered agreement was drawn up which required the PLO's leadership and its fighters to depart from Lebanon. The former went to Tunis and the latter were dispersed to a variety of other Arab destinations. As a consequence of this departure and the loss of protection that the PLO had provided for the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, a horrific massacre at the Beirut refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila took place. 1 On 16 to 18 September 1982, the Israelis enabled their Phalangist allies to enter the camps and perpetrate the mass killings of between one thousand and three thousand people, most but not all of whom were Palestinians.
