@number.seven.gurl: Shatila was created in 1949 to shelter Palestinians driven from their homes during the Nakba, but safety never truly arrived. During Lebanon’s civil war, the camp was repeatedly shelled, besieged and attacked because Palestinian refugees had become trapped inside wider struggles involving Israel, Lebanese militias, the PLO, Syria and competing Lebanese factions. In 1982, Israel invaded Lebanon and subjected West Beirut, including the area surrounding Shatila, to devastating bombardment. After Palestinian fighters had evacuated Beirut under an internationally brokered agreement, Israeli forces surrounded Sabra and Shatila and allowed the Israeli allied Lebanese Phalangist militia to enter. From September 16 to 18, civilians were murdered inside their homes and alleyways while the camp remained encircled. Estimates of those killed vary widely, from hundreds to several thousand, but the victims included Palestinian refugees and Lebanese civilians. Israel’s Kahan Commission later found that Israeli officials bore indirect responsibility and that Defence Minister Ariel Sharon carried personal responsibility for failing to prevent the massacre. Between 1985 and 1988, Shatila was besieged and attacked again during the War of the Camps, when the Amal Movement and its allies fought Palestinian factions amid a struggle over control of Beirut and Lebanon’s camps. Residents endured shelling, hunger and repeated displacement, and by the late 1980s Shatila had been almost entirely destroyed. It was rebuilt, but its people remained stateless, overcrowded and denied many basic rights in Lebanon. Now another generation hears explosions over Beirut and watches families flee again. For someone raised in Shatila, fear is not tied to one terrible night…it is inherited from decades in which a place built as temporary refuge has been bombed, besieged, massacred, destroyed and rebuilt around its survivors. Shatila has been treated as a battlefield again and again. Sources: UNRWA; Palestinian Journeys, Institute for Palestine Studies; United Nations records; Human Rights Watch. #Lebanon #Palestine #Shatila #Beirut

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Tuesday 21 July 2026 03:48:14 GMT