Black Saturday (Lebanon)
Black Saturday (Arabic: السبت الأسود; French: Samedi noir) was the massacre of about 300 Lebanese Muslims and Druze in Beirut by Phalangists on Saturday 6 December 1975, during the early stages of the Lebanese Civil War. It set a precedent for later outbreaks such as the Battle of the Hotels, the Karantina massacre and the Damour massacre.
| Black Saturday Massacre | |
|---|---|
| Part of the Lebanese Civil War | |
| Location | Beirut, Lebanon |
| Coordinates | 33°44′N 35°27′E |
| Date | 6 December 1975 |
| Target | Lebanese Muslims, Druze and Palestinians in Lebanon |
Attack type | Massacre |
| Deaths | 200+ killed |
| Perpetrators | Kataeb Party |
| Motive | Anti-Palestinianism, revenge for the murder of a Phalangists son |
The killings were led by Joseph Saade, a Phalangist whose son was killed in Fanar earlier that day along with 3 other young men while heading to a cinema in Brumana. The four young Christian men were found dead with axes and gunshots wounds on the Fanar road in Lebanon. Saade's first son was also murdered by Palestinian gunmen while participating in a rally paper earlier in 1975.
The massacre set Beirut ablaze, and accelerated the rapidly escalating civil war.