Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"The Civil War in Lebanon, which first began in 1975, plumbed new depths of horror when Israeli troops, who had intervened in June 1982 to expel the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), surrounded the Chatila refugee camp and its adjoining Sabra neighborhood, while Christian Phalangist militiamen entered and began a three-day orgy of atrocity and mass murder. Perhaps 3500 defenseless civilians perished." [Furtado: 1001 Days] "The Sabra and Shatila massacre was the killing of between 762 and 3,500 civilians, mostly Palestinians and Lebanese Shiites, by a militia close to the Kataeb Party, also called Phalange, a predominantly Christian Lebanese right-wing party in the Sabra neighborhood and the adjacent Shatila refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon. From approximately 6:00 pm 16 September to 8:00 am 18 September 1982, a widespread massacre was carried out by the militia virtually under the eyes of their Israeli allies. The Phalanges, allies to the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), were ordered by the IDF to clear out Sabra and Shatila from Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) fighters, as part of the IDF maneuvering into West Beirut. The IDF received reports of some of the Phalanges atrocities . . ." [Wikipedia]