The Tel al-Zaatar massacre was an attack on Tel al-Zaatar, a UNRWA-administered refugee camp housing Palestinian refugees in northeastern Beirut, that ended on August 12, 1976 with the massacre of 1,500 to 3,000 people. The siege began in January of 1976 with an attack by Christian Lebanese militias led by the Lebanese Front as part of a wider campaign to expel Palestinians, especially those affiliated with the opposing Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from northern Beirut. After five months, the siege turned into a full-scale military assault in June and ended with the massacre in August 1976.
The destroyed camp (from the ICRC archives)
Phalange-commander William Hawi (wearing a white shirt) with Amine Gemayel, son of the founder of the right-wing Kataeb Party, at Tel al-Zaatar
Hawi (center) with some of his fighter during the siege
The Kataeb Regulatory Forces – KRF or Forces Régulatoires des Kataeb (FRK) in French, were the military wing of the right-wing Lebanese Christian Kataeb Party, otherwise known as the 'Phalange', from 1961 to 1977. The Kataeb militia, which fought in the early years of the Lebanese Civil War, was the predecessor of the Lebanese Forces. The militia was also involved in massacres against Palestinians in Beirut, Karantina and Tel al-Zaatar.
Bashir Gemayel and William Hawi supervising the training of Kataeb militiamen at Tabrieh, 1972.
William Hawi with KRF junior commander Amine Gemayel at Tel al-Zaatar, 1976.
William Hawi with Kataeb militiamen at Tel al-Zaatar, 1976.