War of the Camps

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,[6] 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.[7]

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.[8]

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[9] and by the 87th Infantry Battalion from the predominantly Christian Maronite Eighth Brigade loyal to General Michel Aoun stationed in East Beirut.[9][6] Virtually all the houses in the camps were reduced to rubble.

In terms of sheer numbers, the Shi'ites outnumbered the Palestinians 5:1. Amal was heavily backed by Syria and indirectly supported by Israel, whereas the PLO did not enjoy much outside support. Amal also had the advantage over the PLO in terms of military equipment, especially artillery pieces and armored vehicles.[10]

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.

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.[11] 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[12] and T-55A tanks[13] 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.

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.[14]

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.[15] 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.[16] 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 the Christian town of Maghdouché[17] 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.[18] During the offensive the Israel Air Force (IAF) launched several air strikes against Palestinian positions around the Sidon. 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”.[19] 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.

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.[20] 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.[21] 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.[22] 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,[23] which was interpreted by Amal militiamen as a deliberate act of provocation.[24] 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 and SSNP militias, and 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.[25]

An incident on 24 February in which over twenty Hizbollah 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.[26][27] 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.[28][29] 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.[30]