Tel al-Zaatar massacre

The Tel al-Zaatar Massacre ( _ar. مذبحة تل الزعتر) took place during the Lebanese Civil War on August 12, 1976. Tel Zaatar was a Palestinian refugee camp north of Beirut. In revenge for the January 1976 massacre of the Christian city of Damour by PLO units, Christian militias laid siege to the refugee camp for 50 days. When the camp fell, no quarter was given to the survivors, and the victims numbered in the thousands.

The massacre and its aftermath

On August 12 the camp finally fell, following an on-and-off siege of several months. During the last two months, the siege had tightened with Syrian backing. Heavy artillery shelling damaged much of the camp and killed a number of inhabitants. As the militias took control of the camp, its inhabitants were forcibly evacuated - or ethnically cleansedFact|date=January 2008 - towards Muslim-held Western Beirut.Fact|date=January 2008 During the evacuation, a few militia forces are said to have machine-gunned refugee columns,Fact|date=January 2008 . The camp itself was completely obliterated to prevent the return of the inhabitants.Fact|date=January 2008

The massacre resulted in severe criticism of Syria throughout the Arab world, and also internationally.Fact|date=January 2008 It is also said to have contributed to the mounting Sunni Muslim dissent within the Alawi-ruled country. As a result, Syria broke off its offensive on the PLO and the LNM, and agreed to an Arab League summit which temporarily ended the Civil War.

Estimations of the numbers of victims:

* Harris (p. 165) writes that "Perhaps 3,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, died in the siege and its aftermath"
* "According to the Red Cross, over 90 percent of the civilians were successfully evacuated before the fall of the camp." [ [http://www.1stbusinesslebanon.com/civilwar/civil1.html Tel El Zaatar 1976 'Tal el zaatar' ' Tel al zaatar ' ] ]
* Cobban (p. 142) writes that 1 500 camp residents were killed in one day and a total of 2 200 were killed throughout the events.
* [http://www.111101.net/facts/history/chronology/phase.php?year=1976 This page] states that 2,000 people died during the entire siege, and 4,000 were wounded.
* [http://www.laa.org/tours/thewar.htm This page] claims that "many of the several thousand civilians who had remained there [during the siege] were killed.
* [http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/jun2000/assa-j16.shtml This page] gives a figure of "2,000 refugees" for Tel al-Zaatar and the Karantina Massacre together.

See also

*Persecution of Muslims
*Persecution of Christians

External links

* [http://www.liberty05.com/civilwar/civil1.html Information and Pictures from the Lebanese Civil War 'liberty05.com'] Tel-el-Zaatar (the Hill of Thyme) was the largest and strongest Palestinian refugee camp established in 1948, Includes several pictures from The Battle of Tel al-Zaatar.

References

Literature

* William Harris, "Faces of Lebanon. Sects, Wars, and Global Extensions" (Markus Wiener Publishers, Princeton, USA 1996)
* Helena Cobban, "The Making of Modern Lebanon" (Hutchinson, London, UK 1985, ISBN 0091607914)