MASSACRE IN LEBANON

Hundreds of Palestinians killed in Beirut refugee camp

By United Press International

MASSACRE IN LEBANON — Albuquerque Tribune, 18 September 1982 — Albuquerque Tribune · Albuquerque, New Mexico · 18 September 1982

Transcribed from the clipping

“Hundreds of men, women and children were massacred in two Palestinian refugee camps in west Beirut within 36 hours, apparently by right-wing Lebanese militiamen, reporters who toured the scene said today. Bodies lay piled in groups of ten or more scattered through the ruins of the camp, which until recently housed tens of thousands of civilians.

Reporters said it was impossible to get a close estimate of the total number of Palestinians killed because the bodies were strewn across several acres of wreckage. It appeared the final toll might be well over 1,000. SOME OF THE MEN who were killed were lined up in front of a wall before they were gunned down, the reporters said.

Bulldozers had been used to pile wreckage on many of the bodies in an attempt to conceal them, but arms and legs were sticking out of the rubble, the reporters said.

Israeli soldiers guarding a hill overlooking the Chatila camp, where the most grisly mass executions took place, said Lebanese soldiers from the rightwing Phalange Party were in charge of the camp when the killing of the Palestinians began. OTHER REPORTS SAID members of the militia loyal to Maj.

Saad Haddad, a former Lebanese Army officer who has been supported by Israel, were in the area Friday. The camps had been under the control of the regular Lebanese army until the Israeli advance on West Beirut three days ago. Phalangist troops had blocked off the main entrance to the camps Friday and barred all reporters. People in the area said they heard shots being fired.

MOST OF THE Israelis guarding the vantage point overlooking the camps with two tanks and three armored personnel carriers said they saw nothing and heard nothing. One tank crewman told a UPI reporter, however, that heavy shooting broke out Friday night when the Phalangists moved through the camps, which is a densely populated neighborhood of crude cement block buildings.”

Context added by this archive

The word massacre across the top of the page in the largest type the paper had, and underneath it the deck says who was killed.

The copy names the Phalange, names Saad Haddad’s militia and its Israeli support, and places Israeli soldiers with two tanks and three armoured personnel carriers on a hill overlooking the camp, most of whom said they saw nothing and heard nothing. One tank crewman told the news agency otherwise.

Cite this item

"MASSACRE IN LEBANON," Albuquerque Tribune, 18 September 1982. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1982-031. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1982-031