Sabra and Shatila massacre

The Sabra and Shatila massacre was the killing of civilians, mostly Palestinian refugees and Lebanese Shiites, in the Sabra neighborhood and the Shatila refugee camp in West Beirut over about three days. It was carried out by the Phalange, a Lebanese Christian militia, after the assassination of its leader Bashir Gemayel, the president-elect. Israeli forces, who controlled the area during the Lebanon War, let the militiamen enter the camps, saying they would search for PLO fighters, and lit the area with flares at night. Estimates of the dead range from several hundred to about three and a half thousand. An Israeli commission of inquiry, the Kahan Commission, found Israel indirectly responsible and held defense minister Ariel Sharon personally responsible, and he resigned from that post.

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