Massacre of Tal al-Zaatar Refugees in Lebanon by Zionists

Institute for Iranian Contemporary Historical Studies
In Tel al-Zaatar, one of the most disastrous mass destruction of the Palestinians in Lebanon was occurred by Israeli soldiers who followed the commands of "Shimon Peres". In this place, "only 17,000 thousand people out of 30,000 thousands were Palestinian inhabitants. The rest were Lebanese Shiite population who were moving from the south towards the East of the country which was an industrial center in search of work.
The camp, which is now a dilapidated piece of land is located in the southeastern part of Beirut, in the Christian area, one of the terrible mass murders at the behest of "Peres" was performed.
Since 1948 when the first group of Palestinian Arabs were forced to leave the country, many people lived in this camp. After extensive massacre of Palestinian refugees in Jordan by its army in 1970 which became known as "Black September", another large group of Palestinians fled the country and entered Lebanon and joined hundreds of thousands displaced peoples of wars of 1948 and 1967.
In the early days of this wandering, Palestinians were served with a morsel of bread and a little water. But by the year 1976, when they were attacked by the Israelites, they had become able to work and try to live relatively well and improve their situation. In that year the ungenerous attack of Israeli forces in cooperation with the Phalange and soldiers under the command of Saad Haddad was equipped with a barrage of machine gun and mortar fire and incendiary bombs.
In this attack, the Israeli army and their collaborators had even the water wells of the camp in their possession and the remaining camp residents which were a number of women and children, were denied access to it. In those ardent and tempestuous days there was a famous twist that "a cup of water is the equivalent of one cup of blood.” The Phalanges under the protection of Israeli soldiers had no mercy on camp residents, not even on women, children, and elders. They beheaded all the men who were leaving the camp in one of the turbulent days of attacks and massacre.
One of the Israeli soldiers who had witnessed the operation in Tel al-Zaatar camp, wrote: “… you should have known Phalange to understand that what kinds of violence and cruelties they can do. At least I'm a simple soldier in Beirut, I have understood this well... I was a friend of one of the Phalanges… He showed two photo he had taken with real pride to me, I have not forgotten them yet. In one of the photos, he had stood with the championship prestige with two complete ears in his hands, ears of terrorists! He told me that he has recently cut those ears off from the body of a terrorist [after the Israeli missioned its army to take care of Phalanges]. In the other picture he held two heads in each of his hands and a third head was placed between his knees! He told me with absolute timidity: “these heads are from the Palestinians that I have cut them off”.
According to an American journalist named Judith Coburn “in the bombing of villages, towns and populated centers of southern Lebanon in 1974, every day, Israeli planes and artillery and warships were involved. Israeli commandos attacked them by blowing up houses and killing them and finally arresting a number of people taking them to an unknown place that no trace of them would be left. Israelis uses quite brutal methods which was specific our military forces in India and China; shelling, bombing and casting incendiary phosphorous bombs and napalm crumble, weapons most of which had been provided by the United States for Israel.
Some diplomats living in Beirut and eyewitnesses have reported that "the Israelis in southern Lebanon follow the burning of their lands, and their goal is to drive people out of there and make a Demilitarized Zone there." They have also mentioned in their reports, the cremation of bodies of victims and destroying the graves.
One of the dangerous weapons that Israeli forces used in Lebanon were cluster bombs. When these bombs were dropped, colorful balls poured out of them making children happy. Therefore, not knowing they are rushing to death, they would run to them to take the colorful balls. Taking each ball actually meant tearing off the bodies of those children. Even if they were not killed, they would miss their hands and feet or became blind. This was the gift of the government of the United States which claims to be a supporter of human rights for homeless Palestinians.
Tel al-Zaatar fell as the result of killings by the Phalange in the company of Israeli soldiers and 2500 helpless displaced refugees were killed. Then the way for the entrance of Zionists and Israeli troops in the region who were under the command of generals was opened. Tony Clifton in the book “The Heaven Wept” wrote: "The smell of death filled the space of the camp. Wherever you looked, the bodies were stacked on each other. In the streets, side streets, carts and on the ruins…”
In these genocide and massacres which occurred in the camps “Tel al-Zaatar, Sabra and Shatila”, Israeli terrorists were not even afraid of burning bodies of women and their infants. As if they had no harts in their bodies. Phosphorus incendiary bombs and cluster bombs which were the gift of the Unites States to the Israeli government fell on children and the elderly and the sick, and all the inhabitants of the camps. The bombs were often made in the shape of dolls and toys. Children and women who were unaware of the deadly weapon which lied in the heart of the puppets, would kept them on their breasts and the bombs would explode and both mother and child would burn in fire. Former deputy mayor of Jerusalem has said about the hypocrisy of American government: "If our military is not the product of the supports provided by the Unites States, then what it is? Wasn’t it Reagan was declared that settlements in the West Bank is not illegal and wasn’t it Hague who endorsed the invasion of Lebanon.