Siege of Tel al-Zaatar

The siege of Tel al-Zaatar (حصار تل الزعتر) took place during the Lebanese Civil War on 12 August 1976. Tel al-Zaatar (The Hill of Thyme) was a UNRWA administered Palestinian Refugee camp housing approximately 50,000-60,000 refugees in northeast Beirut.

Background
With the breakdown in authority of the Lebanese government the militancy of radical faction increased.

After, Guardians of the Cedars and Tigers Militia forces took control of the Karantina district on 18 January 1976 by committing a massacre known as the Karantina Massacre.

On 4 January 1976, a thin cordon was established around the camp by 300 fighters from the Al-Tanzim and 100 fighters from the Maroun Khoury Group in an effort to contain the Palestinians. The Maroun Khoury Group was a Dikwaneh-based militia. One road was left open to allow Palestinian evacuation towards Aley but the Palestinians refused to enter into dialogue with the Lebanese Front.

Ahrar forces surrounded and attacked Jisr al Basha and Kataeb and Guardian of the Cedars troops engaged the adjacent, mainly Shiite, area of Nabaa, which contained large numbers of leftist forces. The Battle for the Camps had started and was the final showdown between the Palestinian militias and the Lebanese Front in Beirut. It was one of the hardest battles fought during the war.

Syria put itself forwards as a "mediator" on the basis of historic claims. Syrian forces with As-Sa'iqa units were intervening on behalf of hard presses right-wing militias by April. The influence of Syria led to the election of Elias Sarkis.

By the first week of June, Syrian forces had applied a blockade of West Beirut, a predominantly Muslim section that contained the Palestinian headquarters, leaving only the southern route open. From 22 June the Phalangist forces, many Christian residents of Ras el-Dekweneh and Mansouriye controlled by Maroun Khoury with Syrian backing intensified the blockade to a full-scale military assault that lasted 35 days. The Lebanese right-wing militias had laid siege to the refugee camp for 3 months. When the camp fell, the Palestinian deaths numbered in the thousands. The besieging militia's loss was around 200 armed men.

The battle and its aftermath
The battle is said to have contributed to the mounting Sunni Muslim dissent within Alawi-ruled Syria. As a result, Syria broke off its offensive on the PLO and the LNM, and agreed to an Arab League summit which temporarily ended the Civil War.

After killing and evicting the occupying Palestinians on January 20, 1976 the PLO used the Christian town of Damour to house survivors of the Tel al-Zaatar battle.

The split in the PLO leadership was ended when the Syrian backed As-Sa'iqa movement was expelled from the PLO, leaving Fatah as the dominant party.

Hafez al-Assad received strong criticism and pressure from across the Arab world for his involvement in the battle - this criticism, as well as the internal dissent it caused as an Alawite ruler in a majority Sunni country, led to a cease-fire in his war on the Palestinian militia forces.

Estimations of the numbers of victims

 * Cobban (p. 142) writes that 1 500 camp occupants were killed in one day and a total of 2 200 were killed throughout the events.
 * Canadian artist Jayce Salloum] states that 2,000 people died during the entire siege, and 4,000 were wounded.
 * World Socialist Web Site gives a figure "2,000 refugees" for Tel al-Zaatar.