April 13, 1975 · Beirut Theater

On April 13, 1975, Phalangist gunmen ambushed a bus carrying Palestinian and Lebanese passengers through the Beirut suburb of Ain el-Rummaneh, killing 27 people. The attack was retaliation for an earlier shooting that wounded Pierre Gemayel, founder of the Phalange party. Within hours, Black Saturday saw dozens more die in tit-for-tat sectarian killings across the capital.

October 12, 1975 · Beirut — Ras Beirut district Theater

From October 1975 through March 1976, Lebanese leftist and Palestinian forces fought Maronite militias in the luxury hotels of Beirut's seafront Ras Beirut district. The Holiday Inn, Phoenicia, and St. George hotels became fortified battlegrounds, with snipers using upper floors and rocket teams contesting each tower in turn. The battle epitomized the transformation of Beirut's cosmopolitan downtown into a war zone.

June 1, 1976 · Northern and Eastern Lebanon Theater

In June 1976, Syrian President Hafez al-Assad sent some 40,000 troops and 800 tanks into Lebanon under the banner of an Arab Deterrent Force, ostensibly to restore order. Assad's intervention was strategically paradoxical: he intervened against the Lebanese National Movement and PLO — nominally his allies — to prevent their total victory, which he feared would provoke a devastating Israeli response and destabilize his own border region.

June 22, 1976 · East Beirut Theater

From June to August 1976, the Lebanese Forces and allied Maronite militias besieged Tel al-Zaatar, a Palestinian refugee camp in East Beirut holding some 30,000 residents. The camp was systematically shelled and its supply lines cut for over fifty days. When the camp fell on August 12, 1976, Phalangist fighters massacred hundreds of Palestinian civilians and fighters attempting to flee along designated evacuation corridors.

March 14, 1978 · South Lebanon Theater

Following a PLO coastal road attack that killed 38 Israeli civilians, Israel launched Operation Litani on March 14, 1978, sending 25,000 troops into southern Lebanon up to the Litani River. The operation aimed to destroy PLO infrastructure and push Palestinian fighters north of the river. Israeli forces occupied a strip of southern Lebanon and created a client militia, the South Lebanon Army, to hold the territory.

June 6, 1982 · All of Lebanon Theater

On June 6, 1982, Israel launched its largest military operation since 1973, sending over 76,000 troops and 1,240 tanks into Lebanon in three columns aimed at encircling Beirut and destroying the PLO. Defense Minister Ariel Sharon's plan went far beyond the stated objective of securing northern Israel from rocket fire; it aimed to reshape Lebanon's political map by installing Bashir Gemayel as president and expelling the PLO entirely. Israeli forces swept through southern Lebanon and reached the outskirts of Beirut within days.

June 13, 1982 · Beirut Theater

For ten weeks from mid-June to late August 1982, Israeli forces besieged West Beirut, where approximately 6,000 PLO fighters and Syrian troops were sheltered among the civilian population. Israel imposed a naval blockade and conducted intensive air strikes and artillery bombardment. International pressure mounted as civilian casualties rose, with one day — August 12 — seeing eleven hours of continuous bombing that killed hundreds. US envoy Philip Habib negotiated a ceasefire and PLO evacuation.

September 16, 1982 · Beirut — Sabra and Shatila refugee camps Theater

From September 16 to 18, 1982, Lebanese Phalangist militiamen entered the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila in Israeli-controlled West Beirut and massacred between 800 and 3,500 Palestinian and Lebanese Shia civilians — the exact death toll remains disputed. The killings were carried out in retaliation for the assassination of Lebanese President-elect Bashir Gemayel. Israeli forces under Ariel Sharon controlled the perimeter, provided illumination flares at night, and were present throughout; the Kahan Commission subsequently found Israel 'indirectly responsible.'

October 23, 1983 · Beirut International Airport Theater

On October 23, 1983, a Mercedes truck carrying 12,000 pounds of explosives drove into the US Marine headquarters at Beirut International Airport and detonated in what was then the deadliest terrorist attack against Americans in history. 241 US service members were killed. Simultaneously, a second truck bomb destroyed the French paratroopers' headquarters, killing 58. The attacks were carried out by an Islamic Jihad Organization, later linked to Hezbollah and Iranian intelligence.

May 19, 1985 · Beirut — Palestinian refugee camps Theater

From 1985 to 1988, Amal, the Shia militia supported by Syria, besieged the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra, Shatila, and Bourj el-Barajneh in a series of prolonged assaults designed to prevent the PLO from reconstituting its military presence in Lebanon. Camp residents, mostly civilians, endured starvation conditions and repeated assaults. The fighting pitted Palestinian fighters defending the camps against Syrian-backed Amal forces, with Hezbollah occasionally intervening to allow food convoys.

October 22, 1989 · Taif, Saudi Arabia Theater

On October 22, 1989, Lebanese parliamentarians met in the Saudi city of Taif and signed a national reconciliation accord brokered by Saudi Arabia, with Syrian and Arab League support. The agreement modified Lebanon's confessional power-sharing system to give Muslims equal representation with Christians in parliament (previously Christians held a 6:5 majority), transferred executive power from the Maronite president to the Council of Ministers, and called for Syrian forces to gradually redeploy. General Michel Aoun, who held the presidential palace, rejected the agreement.

October 13, 1990 · East Beirut — Baabda Theater

On October 13, 1990, Syrian air force jets bombed the Baabda presidential palace where General Michel Aoun, self-declared prime minister and the last holdout against the Taif Agreement, had taken refuge. Syrian ground forces and Lebanese Army units loyal to the Taif government assaulted his positions in a coordinated attack. Within hours, Aoun's resistance collapsed. He fled to the French embassy and eventually into exile in France.