Blog
8th February 1983: Ariel Sharon quits after Sabra and Shatila massacres
8th February 2008
The June 6th 1982 invasion of Lebanon (codenamed Operation Peace of the Galilee) by Israeli forces was ordered in direct reponse to the attempted assassination of the Israeli ambassador to the UK, Shlomo Argov by the Abu Nidal Organisation (Palestinian ‘terrorist’, a founder of Fatah who had split from Yasser Arafat and the PLO). Lebanon had, after the 1948-49 conflict become the home to around 100,000 Palestinian refugees who had fled from their homes in present day Israel. By the early 1980s this number had grown to about 300,000, with the PLO establishing their own area of control in southern Lebanon. It was this influence that the Israelis sought to end - with the actions of the Abu Nidal Organisation being used as a convenient excuse.
Publicly the Israelis sated that they had limited aims - to drive the PLO northwards and away from the Israeli border by some 40km. Once they had achieved that goal, however, they pushed on to occupy parts of Beirut. AS a consequence around 14,000 PLO fighters were obliged to leave Lebanon and take refuge in Tunisia and other countries.
It was whilst in control of WEst Beirut that Israeli forces allowed around 150 Christian Phalange fighters into the Sabra and Shatila camps in order to clear out ‘terrorists’ remaining in the camps. As a result somewhere between 1000-3500 Palestinians, mostly defenseless, were killed.