Two weeks after PLO forces left, hundreds of Palestinian civilians were slaughtered in the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps in Beirut. The killings began one day after the murder of Lebanese Christian president Bashir Gemayel, whom the Israelis had hoped to help install as a friendly head of state. The executioners were Phalangist Christian militias who had entered the camps after Gemayel's death at the encouragement of Ariel Sharon and other Israeli military officers.
