Background
With the breakdown in authority of the Lebanese government the militancy of radical faction increased.
After Phalange, Guardians of the Cedars and Tiger militia forces took control of the Karantina district on 18 January 1976 by committing a massacre known as The Karantina Massacre, Tel al-Zaatar was placed under siege by a plan elaborated by General Michel Aoun who was the army commander of the area at that time.
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 Palestinians 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 Christian 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 Christian 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. Christian militias had laid siege to the refugee camp for 7 months. When the camp fell, the Palestinian victims numbered in the thousands. The Christian militia loss was around 200 armed men.
Read more about this topic: Tel Al-Zaatar Massacre
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