In February 1975 , a pro-Palestinian Lebanese MP , Maarouf Saad , was shot and killed , reportedly by the Lebanese Army . His death from his wounds , the following month , and the massacre in April of 27 Palestinians and Lebanese travelling on a bus from Sabra and Shatila to the Tel al-Zaatar refugee camp by Phalangist forces precipitated the Lebanese Civil War . Arafat was reluctant to respond with force , but many other Fatah and PLO members felt otherwise . For example , the DFLP carried out several attacks against the Lebanese Army . In 1976 , an alliance of Christian militias with the backing of the Lebanese and Syrian armies besieged Tel al-Zaatar camp in east Beirut . The PLO and LNM retaliated by attacking the town of Damour , a Phalangist stronghold where they massacred 684 people and wounded many more . The Tel al-Zaatar camp fell to the Christians after a six-month siege in which thousands of Palestinians , mostly civilians , were killed . Arafat and Abu Jihad blamed themselves for not successfully organizing a rescue effort
Damour
Damour massacre
Yasser Arafat