Publish Date: Sept. 27, 1982
Cover Story: The New Lebanon Crisis
How TIME Covered the News: Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon will forever be remembered for a horrifying massacre that occurred under Israeli watch. With Israeli troops surrounding the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila, right-wing Lebanese Christian militia burst in and slaughtered hundreds of innocent men, women and children.
They murdered young men in groups of ten or 20, they killed mothers, babies and old people. They even shot horses. And when it was over, they attempted, in a manner reminiscent of World War II, to destroy the evidence by bulldozing the bodies into makeshift common graves. TIME Correspondent Roberto Suro visited the Sabra camp late Friday afternoon and counted 50 corpses in one place. A Red Cross worker at a nearby hospital estimated that 450 bodies had been removed from the two camps.