Four thousand male and female martyrs, the toll of the victims of the Sabra and Shatila massacre, committed by pro-Israel militias in the period between September 16-18, 1982, amid shameful Arab and international silence.

Izz al-Din Manasrah says in his book “The Palestinian Revolution in Lebanon 1972-1982,” each of the martyrs has his own narrative, and because they possess these narratives, witnesses to a greater tragedy that occurred in 1948 were assassinated.

Researchers and oral narrators classified the nationalities of the victims of the Sabra and Shatila massacre: 75% Palestinians, 20% Lebanese, 5% (Syrians, Iranians, Bengalis, Turks, Kurds, Egyptians, Algerians, and Pakistanis) and others whose nationalities were not specified.

Massacre backgrounds:

The conspiracy against the only and defenseless Palestinian in Lebanon began after the departure of the PLO forces and the Fedayeen in late August 1982 to Jordan, Iraq, Tunisia, Yemen, Syria, Algeria, Cyprus and Greece, with the withdrawal of multinational forces several days earlier: American on September 10, 1982, Italian on September 11, and French on September 13. In September, they withdrew ten days before their official date.

Despite the presence of American guarantees and Philip Habib’s agreement that the Israeli occupation army will not enter West Beirut, and the guarantee of protection for Palestinian civilians and the families of the guerrillas who left Beirut.

According to Rafael Eitan's claim, he is "cleansing the camps of terrorists", under the pretext of the presence of two thousand Palestinian fighters, while not the body of a single armed Palestinian was found.

The beginnings of the massacre:

Wednesday, September 15, the Israeli occupation forces besieged the Sabra neighborhood and the Shatila camp, and began monitoring every movement in the area from atop a building they occupied. At dawn on Thursday, September 16, the forces that were stationed in a building at the entrance to Shatila began monitoring every moment and movement in the camp and gave orders to the killers, while their planes departed. Its army throws light bombs, to illuminate the darkness of the safe place in front of the eyes of the killers of children, women and the elderly.

On the morning of Friday, September 17, the signs of the massacre began to become clear to most residents of the area, after they saw corpses and bulldozers demolishing homes over the heads of their owners, burying them dead and alive. Individual and group fleeing began, most of which went to the hospitals of Acre and Gaza and the shelter for the elderly, and a number of them were able to leave the area. He sneaked out of a fixed forest, while families and homes remained unaware of what was going on. Some of them were killed while they were gathered around the dining table, because the killing was carried out silently and quickly.

On Friday, stories of death pits began, and the number of attackers increased, although testimonies and facts confirm that the largest number of martyrs died on the first night of the massacre, Thursday night, but killing methods developed and phosphorus bombs were added that were thrown into shelters.

They also stormed Akka Hospital, killed Palestinian nurses and doctors, and kidnapped patients, injured people, and those fleeing the massacre from inside the hospital.

The second day was characterized by more killing inside homes, in some alleys and close to the Kuwaiti embassy and the Sports City, where there were holes prepared by the Israeli missiles that fell on the Sports City during the invasion of Beirut in June 1982, and due to the presence of some mines and their explosion, some of the kidnapped and driven to death were able to die. From escaping in light of the chaos of the huge numbers of people gathered and waiting for their turn to be shot or even buried alive, those who managed to escape narrated compelling details of the way they dealt with the people and the methods of killing them, in which the killer was creative while laughing, cursing, and drinking alcoholic beverages.

On the third day, Saturday, September 18, the killing, slaughter, and kidnapping operations continued, even though, as Israeli sources said, instructions were issued to the attackers to withdraw at ten in the morning, but dozens of testimonies from residents confirmed that the massacre continued until one in the afternoon, and was characterized by public mass death operations, and the investigation began. Residents of the area in the Sports City were attacked by the Israeli occupation forces and the militias loyal to them. Dozens were arrested and kidnapped, most of whom did not return and their fate is unknown.

The occupation was not satisfied with covering up the extermination of people and creating all the conditions to crush the Palestinian who defeated it in the siege of Beirut. It took revenge on Sunday, September 19, 1982, by stealing the documents of the Palestinian Research Center and loading the archives into trucks.

Camps in Lebanon:

In the background of researching the history of the camps in Lebanon, we find that in 1982, the year of the Israeli invasion and massacre, there were 12 Palestinian camps on Lebanese territory: Rashidiyeh, Al-Bass, and Borj Al-Shamali in the Tyre region, Ain Al-Hilweh and Mieh Miyeh in the Sidon region, Wavel in Baalbek, and Shatila. Mar Elias, Burj al-Barajneh, and Dbayeh in the Beirut region, and Nahr al-Bared and Beddawi in the Tripoli region. Ain al-Hilweh and Nahr al-Bared camps are considered among the largest camps in area, while Shatila camp is one of the smallest.

In addition to these camps, there was Nabatieh camp, which was completely destroyed by Israeli bombing on April 16, 1974.

As for the Tire and Sidon camps, they were partially destroyed several times. Due to the multiple civil wars on the territory of Lebanon, in 1976, both the Jisr al-Basha camp and the Tal al-Zaatar camp were completely destroyed, which was the camp that suffered as a result of a long siege, and the Dbayeh camp was also partially destroyed.