Back then the Palestinian militias sparked the beginning of a long destructive civil war. The Palestinian armed militants led by Yaser Arafat aimed to cleanse the south from its inhabitants whom were opposing the oppressive Palestinian military presence and Arab nationalism

Arafat once stated that “the road to Jerusalem goes through Jounieh”, a Lebanese coastal city. This statement was regarded by many Lebanese as a disloyalty to Lebanon and a direct threat to the Lebanese.

On the 20th of January, 1976, Palestinian militias managed to besiege the Damour town after they’ve invaded the surrounded towns backed by leftist Lebanese militias.

It was a dark and bloody day in the history of the PLO in Lebanon. A History soaked in the blood of the slaughtered Lebanese infants and women.

For 2 weeks the town was bombarded with cannons by the Palestinian militants killing hundreds of civilians and amputating/injuring others, which eventually led to the disastrous fall of Damour.

Palestinian militias entered the Damour town and started massacring the Lebanese residents and forcibly displaced them. The militiamen closed all main entrances of Damour. Whole families were killed of whom the Kanaan family was the first, a family of a father, a pregnant mother and 4 children was brutally butchered.

Families like Abou Merhi, Eid, Makne and Abadallah were eliminated.

During the attack, most residents of Damour escaped to a nearby town and took shelter in one of the presidential castles there. The Lebanese Army failed to stop this massacre and only sent helicopters to rescue the Lebanese civilians. Those who couldn’t leave Damour were literally thrown in the sea by the Palestinian militias, Lebanese people were fleeing the atrocities of the PLO via boats while others fled along train tracks to find a way out.

Unfortunately many didn’t make it out, and dozens of trapped civilians hid in the churches that were being attacked by Palestinians with grenades.

It was estimated that the number of Palestinian militants who entered Damour was 5000.

“According to an eyewitness, the attack took place from the mountain behind the town. “It was an apocalypse,” said Father Mansour Labaky, a Christian Maronite priest who survived the massacre. “They were coming, thousands and thousands, Let us attack them for the Arabs, let us offer a holocaust”, and they were slaughtering everyone in their path, men, women and children.”

The militiamen arrested Lebanese men and publicly executed the young ones in the main square of Damour.

Women were raped and children were forced to witness their fathers being executed and stepped on by militants.

Perhaps the ironic part of this event is the fact that the Palestinian militias, who claimed to be against the Israeli atrocities against their people, butchered and forcibly displaced indigenous Lebanese people from Damour and the surrounding areas to settle Palestinian immigrants instead. Sounds familiar?

For decades many sides aimed to shy away this anniversary as it might “harm” the “Palestinian cause” that the same people have been milking for the past years to climb into power.

We are here to say that our blood also matters and we won’t allow any degradation of our martyrs, all the Lebanese martyrs.”