Word: hobeika
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Dates: during 1982-1982
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...noon Thursday, Sept. 16, at the Israeli command post in Beirut Port. Present was Israeli Major General Amir Drori, head of the Northern Command, and at least three other top Israeli officers. Also present was Fady Frem, the Lebanese Forces Chief of Staff. Frem was accompanied by Elias Hobeika, the Forces' intelligence chief, who had attended the Staff and Command College in Israel. He was to be the main leader of the groups that went into the camps...
...always carries a pistol, a knife and a hand grenade on his belt, Hobeika was the most feared Phalangist in Lebanon. He had taken part in the Tel Zaatar massacre and in attacks on the rivals of Bashir Gemayel. The Israelis knew Hobeika and his followers as ruthless, brutal security men, and knew they did not constitute a disciplined military force...
...Israelis also knew that Hobeika wanted to embarrass Amin Gemayel, whom he hated, and that he was involved in a bitter power struggle within the Lebanese Forces. As the man charged with protecting Bashir Gemayel, Hobeika was blamed for the leader's death and thus was anxious to take out his frustrations on someone. The Palestinians, who had fought Gemayel in the past, would turn out to be the victims...
...meeting with the Israelis on Sept. 16, Fady Frem said Hobeika would take his men into the Shatila camp, and both men said there would be a kasach (in Arabic, a chopping or slicing operation). General Drori ignored the evident implications of this remark and the go-ahead was given. Later Drori telephoned Sharon in Tel Aviv: "Our friends are moving into the camps. I coordinated their entrance with their top men." Replied Sharon: "Congratulations . . . The friends' operation is authorized." The Israeli Cabinet and Begin, who were getting only the information that Sharon wanted to pass on, then approved...
...about 5 p.m. Thursday, Hobeika's force assembled at the Beirut International Aiport and moved into the Shatila camp soon afterward. Israeli artillery assisted them with flares and later with tank and mortar fire. There was scattered resistance, and Hobeika's men asked for more flares, more tank fire and later for first-aid assistance in evacuating their own casualties. At dawn Friday, Hobeika received Israeli permission to bring two additional battalions into the camps. As it turned out, only one battalion was used. Throughout the day and all that night, the murderous operation continued. On Friday, Israeli Chief...