Sabra and Shatila

"One of Israel’s most infamous crimes occurred 33 years ago this week. In September 1982, the Israeli army surrounded the Sabra neighborhood and adjacent Shatila refugee camp in southern Beirut. Israel gave its allies in a right-wing Christian militia known as the Phalange free rein to massacre a large number of Palestinian and Lebanese civilians living in the area. Israeli troops even shot flares into the night sky to help the Phalangists find their targets. Exactly how many were killed between 16 and 18 September 1982 remains unknown. Estimates vary from 800 to 3,500; the real number is hard to determine because bodies were buried quickly in mass graves or never found, and many men were marched out of the camp and “disappeared.” "