Palestinians commemorate Sabra and Shatila massacre 42 years later

It has been 42 years since the Sabra and Shatila massacres, in which an estimated 3,500 Palestinian civilians living in Beirut were slaughtered by a Lebanese militia led by the Israeli army.

No one has ever been held accountable for the brutal killings that took place in the two Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut between September 16 and 18, 1982. They are an additional burden for the families of the victims, who commemorate the killings every year.

Ahmad Al-Ghadban, 14, was born in Shatila and his grandfather survived the massacres, one of the bloodiest events of the Lebanese civil war.

“He told me that the Israeli army entered Lebanon, occupied Beirut and then (Lebanese fighters) entered the Sabra and Shatila camps and attacked the residents with armed militias,” he said. Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed, The New Arabs Arabic-language sister edition.

Most of the people who were adults when the massacres took place 42 years ago are now dead. Comparisons are often made with the current massacres in Gaza.

“The massacres in Sabra and Shatila are the same massacres that are happening in Gaza now, the agenda is the same. It is a political agenda and the goal is that no Palestinian will be left alive, so that no one will defend the land of Palestine,” he said.

Before the massacre, Israeli forces had swept through southern Lebanon and besieged Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut, where many PLO fighters and other fighters were concentrated.

On September 1, thousands of Palestinian fighters, led by former Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat, left for Tunisia and other countries under international protection.

Although a multinational force had been deployed to protect Palestinian civilians still in the camps, this force withdrew on September 11, leaving them in the hands of militias that had been fighting the PLO for years.

There was no one left to defend the civilians. The Israeli army blocked the entrances to the Sabra and Shatila camps, preventing civilians from fleeing. Meanwhile, the Phalange, a right-wing Christian militia from Lebanon, carried out three days of massacres, killing defenseless children, women and the elderly, mostly Palestinians, but also some Lebanese.

Many families were completely wiped out. In other families, one or two members survived by hiding on roofs, in cupboards or behind kitchen sinks. Hundreds of children saw their families slaughtered before their eyes.

Today, Sabra has changed beyond recognition and Palestinians are now a minority there, most of whom have sold their homes and emigrated.

Meanwhile, the population of the Palestinian refugee camps has mixed with other nationalities – mainly Syrians and Lebanese – but even after all these years, the residents have not forgotten the massacres.

Mohammad Bahar lives in the Shatila camp. His family originally comes from the city of Saffuriya in present-day Israel. He said the massacres were intended to “kill as many people as possible in the camps, to crush anything like resistance and to end the idea of ​​a resistance force trying to defend the country.”

“The enemy could not achieve its goal of eliminating the camps’ inhabitants. We are a people of resistance,” he said.

“After the massacre, our people returned to the camp and breathed new life into it. They rebuilt the houses that the attackers had set on fire.”

Bahar points to the resilience of Shatila’s residents. They moved back, married, and started families. Some of their children became resistance fighters.

“Today there is a mix of people living in the camp, including some original residents,” he said.

“There are also Lebanese here who can no longer afford to live outside the camp because of the cost of living. Life in the camp is cheaper than outside, and there are also Syrians who have been displaced by the war.”

The descendants of those who lived in Shatila at the time of the massacre have inherited the heartbreaking stories of their ancestors and continue to pass them on to the next generations so that these memories will not be forgotten.

According to them, Israel wants to kill all Palestinians, especially children, so that there will be no one left who wants to reconquer or defend their homeland.

Today, the walls of Shatila are covered with protest slogans and posters praising the resistance and calling on people not to hand over their ‘weapons’.

The camp is teeming with people. The constant activity and the love of life of the inhabitants show that they still cherish the hope of returning to Palestine.

Muayyad Aqil, a resident of Shatila whose family comes from Tiberias, has heard stories about those fateful days passed on by “the elders.”

“Some families have completely disappeared, leaving no trace. This is exactly what is happening now in Gaza, where the enemy is committing genocide with the most advanced weapons,” Aqil said.

“The message is clear: they don’t want to leave a single Palestinian alive. They want to kill us and exterminate us.”

This article is based on an article that appeared in our Arabic edition on September 16, 2024 by Intisar al-Danan. Click here to read the original article.