The war of the camps Opposing forces Allied with the pro-Arafat
Palestinian refugee camp militias were the Lebanese
Al-Mourabitoun,
Sixth of February Movement,
Communist Action Organization in Lebanon (OCAL),
Druze Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) and
Kurdish Democratic Party – Lebanon (KDP-L), who faced a powerful coalition of
Lebanese Communist Party (LCP), and
Shia Muslim Amal movement militia forces backed by
Syria, the
Lebanese Army, and the anti-Arafat
Fatah al-Intifada,
As-Sa'iqa,
Palestine Liberation Army, and
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP–GC) dissident Palestinian guerrilla factions. Some Palestinian fighters were able to return to the camps via
Cyprus. The journey involved paying substantial sums of money to the
Lebanese Forces militia who controlled the port at
Jounieh. On 2 January 1987 the ferry from
Larnica with 164 passengers was turned back by the
Israeli Navy. The fighters were not arriving in large numbers; one estimate suggests 3-4,000 arrived in 1985.
April 1985 The
February 6 Intifada forced the
Multinational Force (MNF) to withdraw from
Beirut in February–March 1984. Amal took control of West Beirut, establishing a number of outposts and checkpoints around the camps (mostly in Beirut, but also to the south). On 15 April 1985, an alliance of Amal, the PSP, and the
Lebanese Communist Party (LCP) militia, the
Popular Guard, attacked the
Al-Mourabitoun, the main
Sunni Nasserite militia and the closest ally of the PLO in Lebanon. The Al-Mourabitoun was vanquished after a week of street-fighting and their leader,
Ibrahim Kulaylat sent into exile.
May 1985 On 19 May 1985, heavy fighting erupted between Amal Movement and Palestinian camp militias for the control of
Sabra and Shatila and
Burj el-Barajneh camps in Beirut. Amal was supported by the predominantly Shia
Sixth Brigade of the
Lebanese Army commanded by General
Abd al-Halim Kanj and by the 87th Infantry Battalion from the predominantly
Christian Maronite Eighth Brigade loyal to General
Michel Aoun stationed in East Beirut. Although the PSP/PLA and LCP/Popular Guard joined forces with Amal in defeating the Al-Mourabitoun, they remained militarily neutral in the fight against the PLO. Despite prodding from Syria, these political parties and their respective militias contributed nothing more than verbally expressing support for Amal and demanding that Arafat step down. The PSP/PLA even allowed the PLO to station their artillery on Druze-controlled areas. This left Amal to do the work of dislodging the Arafat loyalists, with some help from Syria's anti-Arafat Palestinian allies, such as As-Sa'iqa, PFLP-GC and Fatah al-Intifada. The alliance between Amal and most of the pro-Syrian Palestinian groups eventually soured however, and clashes would later break out between them. While some dissident Palestinian commanders such as
Ahmed Jibril and Abu Musa still supported Amal against the PLO, many anti-Arafat fighters battled Amal in defense of the camps. On 30 May 1985, much of Sabra fell to its attackers. Amid Arab and Soviet political pressure on Syria and an emergency meeting of
Arab League foreign ministers scheduled to discuss the issue on 8 June, Amal declared a unilateral
ceasefire the next day. Despite this, lower-scale fighting continued. In Shatila, the Palestinians only retained the part of the camp centered around the mosque. Burj al-Barajneh remained under siege as Amal prevented supplies from entering or its population from leaving. The death toll remains uncertain, but is likely to have been high. International pressures led to a ceasefire being signed between Amal and the
Palestinian National Salvation Front on 17 June in
Damascus. Sporadic clashes erupted again in September 1985.
May 1986 The situation remained tense and fighting occurred again between September 1985 and March 1986. Fighting broke out for a third time on 27 March 1986, coinciding with a rocket attack on
Kiryat Shimona; it lasted for three days. In Sidon, Amal issued a stern warning to Palestinian factions who tried to reorganize in southern Lebanon. At the time it was estimated that there were more than 2,000 PLO fighters in Lebanon. Exactly one year after the first battle, on 19 May 1986, heavy fighting erupted again. Bolstered by newly received heavy weaponry (including Soviet-made artillery pieces and
T-55A tanks loaned by Syria), Amal tightened its siege on the camps. Many ceasefires were announced but most of them did not last more than a few days.
June 1986 Meanwhile, throughout
West Beirut, Amal continued to suppress the remaining predominately Sunni, pro-Palestinian militias such as the small
Nasserite Sixth of February Movement in June 1986. The PLO was also aided by
Lebanese-Kurdish fighters from the
Kurdish Democratic Party – Lebanon (KDP–L), who lived with their families alongside the Palestinians in the refugee camps. Many leftist Lebanese-Kurdish militants joined Palestinian guerrilla movements during the 1975-76 Lebanese civil war, and these militiamen now fought to protect their homes from Amal, as well as supporting their Palestinian comrades. The situation began to cool on 24 June 1986, when the Syrians deployed some of their
Commando troops, assisted by a special task-force of 800
Lebanese Army soldiers and Gendarmes from the
Internal Security Forces.
September 1986 The tension due to this conflict was also present in the South, where the presence of Palestinian guerrillas in the predominantly Shia areas led to frequent clashes. The third and deadliest battle began on 29 September 1986, when fighting broke out around the
Rashidieh camp in
Tyre between
Amal and locally based PLO groups. Amal surrounded and blockaded the camp, though some supplies arrived by sea. All the smaller Palestinian camps were destroyed and hundreds of homes set on fire. A thousand Palestinian men were kidnapped. By December 7,500 Palestinian civilians had fled from Tyre to Sidon which was not under Amal’s control. Thousands of others fled inland. Around 7,000 non-combatants remained in the camp. A month after the break-out of fighting in Tyre Amal laid siege to the camps in Beirut. On 24 November a force consisting of most of the Palestinian factions in Sidon launched an offensive against Amal positions in the Christian town of
Maghdouché on the eastern hills of Sidon, in order to re-open the road to Rashidieh. In a week of fighting they managed to take control of most of the town. During the offensive the
Israel Air Force (IAF) launched several air strikes against Palestinian positions around the Sidon area. As before, the Arab League pressured both parties to stop the fighting. On 1 December King
Fahd of Saudi Arabia is quoted as saying the attacks on the camps “wounded the Arabs everywhere”. A cease-fire was negotiated between Amal and pro-Syrian Palestinian groups on 15 December 1986, but it was rejected by Arafat's Fatah, who tried to appease the situation by giving some of its positions to the Al-Mourabitoun militia in exchange for supplies to the camps.
February–April 1987 Following the disappearance of
Terry Waite, January 1987, the dynamics in Beirut changed. The return of global media organisations to the city led to attention being focused on the sieges of
Bourj el-Barajneh and
Shatila. Dr
Pauline Cutting, a British doctor in Bourj el-Barajneh, was amongst those who gave graphic descriptions, via radio telephone, of conditions in the camps. Deliverance of humanitarian aid of the
UNRWA to the camps was severely restricted through the ongoing blockades of the Amal milita. Because of that, many
Palestinian refugees suffered, lacking needed medical care and supplies. There had been no fresh food or medicines allowed in for eight weeks. On 13 February two trucks of supplies were allowed into Bourj el-Barajneh, but they were shelled on their arrival, six people were killed and twenty four wounded. On 17 February
Nabih Berri, in Damascus, ordered an end to the sieges. Simultaneously a major escalation of violence erupted in West Beirut, when the Druze PSP/PLA and Amal again turned against each other in what became known as the "War of the Flag". The conflict was started when a PSP/PLA fighter, acting on orders from their leader
Walid Jumblatt, walked to the Channel 7 TV station (
French:
Télé Liban – Canal 7) building in the
Tallet el-Khayat sector at
Msaytbeh and replaced the
Lebanese national flag hoisted there by the
Druze five-coloured flag, which was interpreted by Amal militiamen as a deliberate act of provocation. A new round of brutal fighting soon spread throughout western Beirut, and although Amal forces initially managed to restore the Lebanese national flag on the Channel 7 building, they were subsequently overpowered by an alliance of
PSP/
PLA,
LCP/
Popular Guard,
SSNP-L/
Eagles of the Whirlwind (Anti-Syrian government faction) and
CAOL militias; being driven out of large portions of West Beirut. On 21–22 February, the week of fighting was ended by the arrival in West Beirut of 7,000
Syrian Commando troops under the command of
Major general Ghazi Kanaan, assisted by Lebanese
Internal Security Forces (ISF) gendarmes, who immediately closed over fifty militia "offices" and banned the carrying of weapons in public, detaining in the process many young men with beards suspected of being militiamen and began executing anyone found with unauthorised weapons. An
incident on 24 February in which over twenty
Hezbollah supporters were killed led to intense pressure on Syria from Iran and an end to the army’s advance into the Southern suburbs,
Dahieh, with its 800,000 Shia residents. Shortly afterwards Syria troops took over positions around the camps and began allowing medicines into them. Women were allowed to leave to find food. Men were not. It was estimated that there were 200
PLO fighters remaining in
Shatila Camp and 700 in
Bourj el-Barajneh. There were around 20,000 non-combatants. During the last bout of fighting around 240 people were killed and 1,400 wounded, many of the casualties were in the Shia districts which were shelled from the
Chouf. ==Consequences==