黎巴嫩基督徒和穆斯林之间的冲突与仇恨在1970年代后逐步升级,而黎巴嫩长枪党和巴勒斯坦解放組織作为两个群体中的代表和极端组织,发生了多起暗杀、屠杀等暴力冲突。这次屠杀的导火索被视为黎巴嫩长枪党领导人的巴希尔·杰马耶勒遇刺事件的报复行动,而巴勒斯坦民兵组织则被误认为該暗杀事件的凶手。1982年,以色列入侵黎巴嫩以试图消灭当地的巴勒斯坦解放组织。到了1982年年中,在驻黎巴嫩多国部队(英语:Multinational Force in Lebanon)的监督下,在贝鲁特西部战斗之后几周内巴解组织撤出了黎巴嫩,之后不久这场大屠杀便发生了。屠杀发生时,多支武装部隊——以色列国防军、黎巴嫩长枪党和南黎巴嫩军——都在萨布拉-夏蒂拉附近,这些武装正在利用多国部队刚刚撤走包围这贝鲁特穆斯林聚居区的阵地的机会重新部署[3]。以军在巴解组织撤出后紧接着就推进至了贝鲁特西部,这被视为是违反停火协议的举动,也使得黎巴嫩长枪党能够展开对穆斯林聚居区的暴力突袭[4]。以色列国防军包围了萨布拉-夏蒂拉地区并在其出口部署军队以防止居民逃离,以求血洗。并且在大屠杀发生期间应长枪党的要求在夜间发射照明彈,方便前者進行屠杀。[5][6][7]
在屠杀事件参与者中,有一个称为“年轻人(英语:Young Men (Lebanon))”的团伙,由黎巴嫩力量(英语:Lebanese Forces)情报机构主管以及与以色列摩萨德联络官埃里·荷拜卡(英语:Elie Hobeika)从那些因不服从命令或涉及犯罪而被开除出黎巴嫩力量的成员中招募的暴徒[8]。这场大屠杀被普遍认为是由荷拜卡直接下令执行的(荷拜卡后则从政,长期在黎巴嫩议会活动并担任多个部长级职位)。荷拜卡的家人和未婚妻则在1976年达穆尔大屠杀中死于巴勒斯坦民兵组织及其黎巴嫩的盟友之手,而达穆大屠杀又是对当年初巴勒斯坦人和黎巴嫩穆斯林遭到基督教民兵组织屠杀(卡朗迪纳屠杀(英语:Karantina massacre))的报复[9][10][11]。其他卷入大屠杀的长枪党领导人包括来自黎巴嫩南部的约瑟夫·艾德(英語:Joseph Edde)、长枪党宪兵队的Dib Anasta、来自贝鲁特东部的邁克爾.佐恩(英語:Michael Zouein)和馬魯.米沙拉尼(英語:Maroun Mischalani)。总共有300到400名基督教民兵直接参与到了屠杀中,其中有一些是来自哈达德上校的南黎巴嫩军[12]。1983年,由时任联合国秘书长助理和联合国大会主席的肖恩·麦克布赖德担任主席的调查委员会得出结论,认为以色列作为此地区的占领者,阻止此地区发生屠杀本应是其责任,需对此次事件负责,并认定这是一起反人道的种族灭绝事件[13][14],被委托调查这起事件的以色列贝鲁特难民营屠杀事件委员会发现以色列军队清楚地意识到这场大屠杀正在进行,且不僅沒有阻止還參予其中幫助屠殺平民。因此,以色列对大屠杀负有直接责任,而以色列国防部长阿里埃勒·沙龙需对“忽视大屠杀和复仇事件的存在可能性”负有个人责任,这迫使其引咎辞职。[15]
^Hirst, David. Beware of small states: Lebanon, battleground of the Middle East. Nation Books. 2010: 157. The carnage began immediately. It was to continue without interruption till Saturday noon. Night brought no respite; the Phalangist liaison officer asked for illumination and the Israelis duly obliged with flares, first from mortars and then from planes.
^Friedman, Thomas. From Beirut to Jerusalem. Macmillan. 1995: 161. ISBN 978-0-385-41372-5. From there, small units of Phalangist militiamen, roughly 150 men each, were sent into Sabra and Shatila, which the Israeli army kept illimnated through the night with flares.
^Cobban, Helena. The Palestinian Liberation Organisation: people, power, and politics. Cambridge University Press. 1984: 4. ISBN 978-0-521-27216-2. and while Israeli troops fired a stream of flares over the Palestinian refugee camps in the Sabra and Shatila districts of West Beirut, the Israeli's Christian Lebanese allies carried out a massacre of innocents there which was to shock the whole world.
^Les Secrets de la guerre du Liban : Du coup d'état de Béchir Gémayel aux massacres des camps palestiniens, by Alain Menargues, final chapter
^"Israel: A Country Study", Helen Chapin Metz, ed. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1988 (online copy (页面存档备份,存于互联网档案馆))
^Hirst, David. Beware of small states. Nation Books. 2010: 134. ISBN 978-0-571-23741-8. Clearly, the Israelis had just about dispensed with pretexts altogether. For form's sake, however, they did claim one for the launching of the Fifth Arab—Israeli war. The attempted assassination, on 3 June, of the Israeli ambassador in Britain, Shlomo Argov, was not the doing og the PLO, which promptly denounced it. It was another exploit of Arafat's arch-enemy, the notorious, Baghdad-based, Fatah dissident Abu Nidal . . . the Israelis ignored such distinctions.
^Kahan, Yitzhak, Barak, Aharon, Efrat, Yona (1983) The Commission of Inquiry into events at the refugee camps in Beirut 1983 FINAL REPORT (Authorized translation) p.108 has "This report was signed on 7 February 1982." p.11
^"By 1982, the Israeli-Maronite relationship was quite the open secret, with Maronite militiamen training in Israel and high-level Maronite and Israeli leaders making regular reciprocal visits to one another's homes and headquarters" (Eisenberg and Caplan, 1998, p. 45).
^Leo Kuper, "Theoretical Issues Relating to Genocide: Uses and Abuses", in George J. Andreopoulos, Genocide: Conceptual and Historical Dimensions, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8122-1616-4, p. 37.
^ 47.047.147.2William Schabas, Genocide in International Law. The Crimes of Crimes, p. 455
^ 48.048.1William Schabas, Genocide in International Law. The Crimes of Crimes, p. 454
^Vanished victims of Israelis return to accuse Sharon. The Guardian. 2001-11-25 [2012-11-13]. (原始内容存档于2008-12-06). The fate of the disappeared of Sabra and Chatila will come back to haunt Sharon when a Belgian court hears a suit brought by their relatives alleging his involvement in the massacres.
Eisenberg, Laura Zittrain and Caplan, Neil (1998). Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: Patterns, Problems, Possibilities. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-21159-X.
Harbo, John (20 September 1982). Aftenposten. Middle East correspondent Harbo was also quoted with the same information on ABC News "Close up, Beirut Massacres", broadcast 7 January 1983.