As Defense Minister , Sharon launched an invasion of Lebanon called Operation Peace for Galilee , later known as the 1982 Lebanon War , following the shooting of Israel 's ambassador in London , Shlomo Argov . Although this attempted assassination was in fact perpetrated by the Abu Nidal Organization , possibly with Syrian or Iraqi involvement , the Israeli government justified the invasion by citing 270 terrorist attacks by the Palestinian Liberation Organization ( PLO ) in Israel , the occupied territories , and the Jordanian and Lebanese border ( in addition to 20 attacks on Israeli interests abroad ) . Sharon intended the operation to eradicate the PLO from its state within a state inside Lebanon , but the war is primarily remembered for the Sabra and Shatila massacre . In a three-day massacre between 16 and 18 September , between 460 and 3,500 civilians , mostly Palestinians and Lebanese Shiites , in the Sabra neighborhood and the adjacent Shatila refugee camp were killed by the Phalanges — Lebanese Maronite Christian militias . Chatila had previously been one of the PLO 's three main training camps for foreign terrorists and the main training camp for European terrorists ; the Israelis maintained that 2,000 to 3,000 terrorists remained in the camps , but were unwilling to risk the lives of more of their soldiers after the Lebanese army repeatedly refused to " clear them out . " The killings followed years of sectarian civil war in Lebanon that left 95,000 dead . The Lebanese army 's chief prosecutor investigated the killings and counted 460 dead , Israeli intelligence estimated 700-800 dead , and the Palestinian Red Crescent claimed 2,000 dead . 1,200 death certificates were issued to anyone who produced three witnesses claiming a family member disappeared during the time of the massacre . Nearly all of the victims were men
Sabra and Shatila massacre
Sabra and Shatila massacre
Ariel Sharon