List of Massacres Commited by the Zionists Options

[Irhabiyah]

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Sabra and Shatilla Massacres

On 6 June 1982, the Israeli army invaded Lebanon in what it described as 'retaliation' for the attempted assassination of Israeli Ambassador Argov in London on 4 June. The invasion, soon dubbed "Operation Peace for Galilee," progressed rapidly. By 18 June 1982, Israel had surrounded the Palestine Liberation Organisation's (PLO) armed forces in the western part of the Lebanese capital. A cease-fire, mediated by United States Envoy Philip Habib, resulted in the PLO evacuation of Beirut on 1 September 1982.

On 11 September 1982, Israeli Defence Minister Ariel Sharon, the architect of the invasion, announced that "2,000 terrorists" had remained inside the Palestinian refugee camps around Beirut. On Wednesday 15 September, the day after the assassination of Israeli-allied Phalangist militia leader and Lebanese President-elect Bashir Gemayel, the Israeli army occupied West Beirut, "encircling and sealing" the camps of Sabra and Shatila, which were inhabited by Lebanese and Palestinian civilians. By mid-day on 15 September 1982, the refugee camps were entirely surrounded by Israeli tanks and soldiers, who installed checkpoints at strategic locations and crossroads around the camps in order to monitor the entry or exit of any person. During the late afternoon and evening of that day, the camps were shelled.

Around mid-day on Thursday 16 September 1982, a unit of approximately 150 Israeli-allied Phalangists entered the first camp. For the next 40 hours members of the Phalangist militia raped, killed, and injured a large number of unarmed civilians, mostly children, women and elderly people inside the encircled and sealed camps. The estimate of victims varies between 700 (the official Israeli figure) to 3,500. The victims and survivors of the massacres have never been deemed entitled to a formal investigation of the tragedy, since Israel's Kahan Commission did not have a judicial mandate and was not backed up by legal force.


Testimony and Eyewitness Accounts


Samiha Abbas Hijazi
On Thursday, there was shelling when the Israelis came, then it got worse so we went down into the shelter. (...) We learned on Friday that there had been a massacre. I went to my neighboursأ¢â‚¬â„¢ house. I saw our neighbour Mustapha Al Habarat; he was injured and lying in a bath of his own blood. His wife and children were dead. We took him to the Gaza hospital and then we fled. When things had calmed down, I came back and searched for my daughter and my husband for four days. I spent four days looking for them through all the dead bodies. I found Zeinab dead, her face burnt. Her husband had been cut in two and had no head. I took them and buried them.

Mrs. Abbas Hijazi lost her daughter, her son-in-law, her daughterأ¢â‚¬â„¢s godmother and other loved ones.




Abdel Nasser Alameh

On the night of the carnage, we were at home and we heard that there was a massacre at Shatila(....) We kept watch on the road all night, taking turns to sleep a few hours, until daybreak when some people managed to escape. I thought my brother had gone ahead of us to West Beirut. We waited for him but he didnأ¢â‚¬â„¢t come. In fact my brother was one of the ones they took away, and we never even found his body.

Mr Alameh lost his brother, who was 19 years old.




Wadha Hassan Al Sabeq

We were at home on Friday 17 September; the neighbours came and they started to say: أ¢â‚¬ثœأ¢â‚¬ثœIsrael has come in, go to the Israelis, they are taking papers and stamping them.أ¢â‚¬â„¢أ¢â‚¬â„¢ We went out to surrender ourselves to the Israelis. When we got there, the tanks and the Israeli soldiers were there, but we were surprised to see that they had Lebanese forces with them. They took the men and left us women and children together. When they took the children and all the men from me, they said to us, أ¢â‚¬إ“Go to the Sports Centre,أ¢â‚¬? and they took us there. They left us there until 7pm, then they told us, أ¢â‚¬إ“Go to Fakhani and donأ¢â‚¬â„¢t go back to your house,أ¢â‚¬? then they started firing shells and bullets at us.

On one side there were some men who had been arrested; they took them and we have never found out what happened to them. To this day we know nothing about what happened to them; they just disappeared.

Mrs Al Sabeq lost two sons (aged 16 and 19), a brother and about 15 other relatives.




Mahmoud Younis

I was 11 years old. It was night and we could hear shelling and gunfire. (...) We took refuge in the bedroom and stayed there. As soon as they arrived, they went straight to the living room, and they shot at the photos on the walls, especially the one of my brother who was killed in أ¢â‚¬إ“Black September.أ¢â‚¬? They ransacked the living room, cursing and swearing. After having looked for us in vain, they went up to the roof and stayed there all night long. We spent that night in terror in our hiding place, listening to the shooting and people screaming, while Israel fired flares to light the sky until dawn.

The next morning they started saying, أ¢â‚¬إ“Give yourself up and your life will be spared.أ¢â‚¬? My nephew was 18 months old. He was hungry and we were far from the kitchen. My sister wanted him to quieten down, and she put her hand over his mouth, fearing that they would hear his cries. Her husband decided that we would have to give ourselves up, adding that each personأ¢â‚¬â„¢s fate was preordained by God anyway. The women went out first, my brothers, my father, my brother-in-law and other members of the family followed. My brother was ill. As soon as they heard our voices, they shot in our direction and came straight back inside the house. They asked us where we had been the day before when they had come in and not found anyone there. Then they ordered the women and children to go out. My brother-in-law started kissing his little girl as if he were saying goodbye. An armed man came towards my niece, tied a rope around her neck and threatened to strangle her if her father didnأ¢â‚¬â„¢t let go of her. He let go of her and gave her to me. They wanted to take me too but my mother told them I was a girl. They made my mother and the women walk to the Sports Centre. While I was walking I saw my auntأ¢â‚¬â„¢s husband, Abu Nayef, being murdered near his house with blows of an axe to his head. The dead bodies were disfigured. While I was carrying my niece, I bumped into a dead body that had been hit with an axe and I fell over. They knew then that I was a boy, and one of them put me up against the wall; he wanted to fire a bullet into my head. My mother begged him and kissed his feet so that he would let me go. He pushed her away. When he did that, he heard the clinking of some money she had hidden in her clothes. He asked her what that meant. She replied that he could have all the money he wanted but he had to let me stay with her. In this way we carried on our way and we arrived at the Sports Centre. The Israeli bulldozers were busy digging large trenches. We were told that we all had to get in because they wanted to bury us all alive. My mother started begging him again, and then she asked for a mouthful of water before dying.

At the Sports Centre, I saw the Israeli military, as well as tanks, bulldozers and artillery, all Israeli. We also saw groups of Phalangists with the Israelis.

The Sports Centre was packed with women and children. We stayed there until sunset. An Israeli then came and he said, أ¢â‚¬إ“Everyone go to the Cola region, whoever comes back to the camp will die.أ¢â‚¬? We left, as they fired shots in our direction.

Mr Younis lost his father, three brothers, his maternal uncle, his maternal cousin, two paternal cousins and other members of his family.

More Eyewitness Testimonies