Chatila

Chatila is a district of Beirut (Lebanon) where since 1948 is installed a Palestinian refugee camp. It is the place of a bloody episode of the israélo-Palestinian conflict, known under the name of Massacre of Sabred and Chatila.

During the summer 1982, the Israeli army , entered with the Lebanon to attack the Palestinian camps and to dislodge the Syrian forces , encircles Beirut. The Palestinian and Syrian combatants evacuate the city. But the September 14th the new President (Christian) of Lebanon, Béchir Gemayel, is assassinated. The Israeli army invests Beirut. It establishes a headquarters near the camp of Chatila and entrusts to the Lebanese Phalanges the mission of excavating the camp to flush out the feddayin which could be there still. Entered the camp the September 16th with 18:00, under the command of their chief Elie Hobeika, the phalangists will leave the September 18th there to 8:00, after having, to avenge their Gemayel leader, massacred, not only of the feddayin, but of very many civilians (328 corpses and 991 missings according to the Lebanese investigation, 700 to 800 victims according to an evaluation of the Israeli army, the ICRC of the Red Cross estimates deaths at 1500, and an independent international commission arrived at the calculation of 2750). The Minister for Defense Ariel Sharon had to resign. As for Elie Hobeika, it was not worried by justice before being made carry out in January 2002 two days after having agreed to reveal, under oath, the role of Sharon in the massacres.

References

Random links: