Thread by @MiddleEastEye

THREAD: 38 years ago in 1982, over 3000 Palestinian and Lebanese civilians at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut, Lebanon were massacred by Phalangist militias whilst the Israeli military, who had besieged and bombarded the area for days, watched on (📸: AFP)

After Phalange leader Bashir Gemayel was assassinated on September 14, Israeli forces moved into West Beirut and began to occupy it

The following day, the Israeli army surrounded the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps and on 16 September allowed 150 Phalangist militiamen to enter

The Phalange wanted revenge for Gemayel’s assassination and believed that the Palestinians were behind his murder

They then began a three-day massacre in the camps where civilians, mostly women, children, and the elderly, were raped, mutilated and murdered

Then Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon later claimed he had no way of knowing that civilians would be harmed

However, the Israeli army prevented international humanitarian workers and journalists from entering the camp and provided bulldozers to dispose of the bodies

In 1983, Israel’s Kahana Commission found that Sharon bore “personal responsibility” for the killings of Palestinian and Lebanese civilians and recommended that he be removed from office.

In March 2001, Sharon was elected prime minister of Israel.

In June 2001, lawyers for 23 survivors of the massacre initiated legal proceedings against Sharon in a court in Belgium

The following year, a panel of Belgian judges dismissed the charges of war crimes against Sharon because he wasn’t present in the country to stand trial