The massacre of Sabra and Shatila 1982
An open wound in Palestinians' memories
One of the deadliest crimes against Palestinians carried out by the occupying forces is the massacre at Sabra and Shatila, which is considered to be one of the worst mass murders in human history. It was carried out on solitary Palestinian refugees at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camp by the Israeli army, the South Lebanese Army, and Lebanese troops. Human rights organisations have designated the September 16–18, 1982, massacre as both a war crime and a crime against humanity.
By September 16, 1982, Israeli soldiers, accompanied by militants from the Lebanese army and the South Lebanese Army, started moving through the southwestern lanes towards the Sabra and Shatila camp, which was located next to the Akka Hospital in an area called "Al-Harash." They moved into the streets of the camp and seized total authority. Using machine guns, pistols, axes, clubs, and knives, they carried out horrific killings against the camp's occupants over the period of three days. Witnesses described seeing youngsters with severed limbs, dozens of mutilated dead strewn in the streets and inside wrecked homes, and pregnant women slain with their bellies cut open and their bodies tossed into the camp's alleys. The Akka Hospital's medical staff, including nurses, was not immune from the murders. Three thousand was the expected number of martyrs.
In Palestinian memory, the slaughter occurred decades ago, and the wound is still very much visible. When someone witnesses the horrors and atrocities of the massacre, images of dead bodies, murder scenes, and devastation stay with them forever. As a part of their collective memory, Palestinians pass them on from young people to the elderly.