The Shatila refugee camp (), also known as the Chatila refugee camp, is a settlement originally set up for

Palestinian refugee Palestinian refugees are citizens of Mandatory Palestine, and their descendants, who fled or were expelled from their country, village or house over the course of the 1948 Palestine war and during the 1967 Six-Day War. Most Palestinian refug ...

s in 1949. It is located in southern

Beirut Beirut ( ; ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, just under half of Lebanon's population, which makes it the List of largest cities in the Levant region by populatio ...

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

and houses more than 9,842 registered Palestine refugees. Since the eruption of the Syrian Civil War, the

refugee camp A refugee camp is a temporary Human settlement, settlement built to receive refugees and people in refugee-like situations. Refugee camps usually accommodate displaced people who have fled their home country, but camps are also made for in ...

has received a large number of Syrian refugees. In 2014, the camp's population was estimated to be between 10,000 and 22,000.

History

Establishment

Shatila was set up by the

International Committee of the Red Cross The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is a humanitarian organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, and is a three-time Nobel Prize laureate. The organization has played an instrumental role in the development of rules of war and ...

to accommodate hundreds of refugees who came there after 1948. They were from villages around the area of

Amka Amka (), also Amqa (), is a moshav in the Matte Asher Regional Council of Israel's Northern District, near Acre. The moshav, located in the vicinity of Amqa, a Palestinian village depopulated during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, was founded by ...

Majd al-Krum Majd al-Krum ( ''Majd al-Kurūm'', ) is an Arab citizens of Israel, Arab town located in the Galilee in Israel's Northern District (Israel), Northern District about 16 kilometers (10 miles) east of Acre, Israel, Acre. Its inhabitants are primaril ...

and Yajur in northern Palestine.

During Lebanese Civil War

The Sabra and Shatila massacre was the slaughter of between 1,300 and 3,500 civilians, mostly

Palestinians Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenou ...

and Lebanese Shiites, by the

Lebanese Forces The Lebanese Forces ( ') is a Lebanon, Lebanese Christianity in Lebanon, Christian-based political party and Lebanese Forces (militia), former militia during the Lebanese Civil War. It currently holds 19 of the 128 seats in Lebanon's Parliamen ...

, in the Sabra neighborhood of southern

and the nearby Shatila refugee camp from approximately 6:00 pm on 16 September to 8:00 am on 18 September 1982.

During Syrian Civil War

Since the eruption of the Syrian Civil War in 2011, Lebanon's population has swelled by more than 1 million Syrian refugees. The camp has also swollen with Syrian refugees, receiving mostly the poor Syrians. As of 2014, the camp's population is estimated to be from 10,000 to 22,000.

Management

The camp comprises approximately one square kilometer and thus has an exceptionally high population density.

UNRWA The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA, pronounced ) is a UN agency that supports the relief and human development of Palestinian refugees. UNRWA's mandate encompasses Palestinians who fl ...

operates one health center and two primary schools within the camp.

Non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

s active in the camp include Al-Najda, Beit Atfal Al-Soumoud, Norwegian Peoples' Aid, Doctors Without Borders, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society and the Association Najdeh.

References

External links

Lebanon - Camp Profiles - Shatila

Windward between Naples and Baghdad

Are Knudsen and S. Hanafi (Eds.) Palestinian Refugees: Identity, Space and Place in the Levant. Routledge. 2010
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shatila Refugee Camp Populated places established in 1949 Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon Syrian refugee camps Articles containing video clips 1949 establishments in Lebanon Beirut in the Israeli–Lebanese conflict Syrian civil war spillover in Lebanon *