On September 16 and 17, 1982, members of the LF (the "Lebanese Forces"), a Christian-Maronite militia, carried out a massacre targeting civilians at the Palestinian refugee camps Sabra and Shatila, located in the southern part of Beirut, the capital of Lebanon. Nearly a thousand people lost their lives in this massacre and many other were wounded.

The Lebanese Forces were established by Bashir al-Jumayyil in 1976 as the military wing of the Lebanese front. Their aim was to unite all Maronite forces in Lebanon. However, most members of the LF also belonged to a second Maronite party called the Lebanese Phalanges, which had been established by Bashir al-Jumayyil's father, Pierre, in 1936. This is why some sources refer to the Phalanges as those who had carried out the massacre, while other sources refer to the LF.

The Lebanese Forces entered the refugee camps two days after the assassination of their leader and their founder,...