Great... so both sides are guilty of atrocities numbering in the hundreds to thousands:
The massacre of 586 Damour Christians by the PLO on January 23, 1976 was described by an eyewitness, Maronite Father Mansour Labaky: "The attack took place from the mountain behind. It was an apocalypse. They were coming, thousands and thousands, shouting 'Allahu Akbar! God is great! Let us attack them for the Arabs, let us offer a holocaust to Mohammed! And they were slaughtering everyone in their path, men, women and children." (6)
Six years later the following reports from the remains of Damour were typical:
The New York Times, June 21 1982, by David Shipler:
"For nearly seven years, until the Israeli army attacked and captured [the Christian town of Damour] last week, the town was inaccessible to its own people; the Palestine Liberation Organization made it a stronghold, using the churches as firing ranges and armories... Where a cross would have hung [inside a church] a triangular PLO symbol is painted in the Palestinian nationalist colors... High in the belfry, a concreted cross has obviously been used as a target over the years, for it is chipped and gouged in a thousand places."
The Washington Post, July 7, 1982, by William Braning:
"The wall of the church where the cross once hung is pock-marked by bullets. Below where the altar once stood, lies a pile of greasy engine casings and spare parts. Oil stains spot the floor of the church, which evidently had been turned into a garage. In another part of town, the large St. Elias Church is in similar disarray."
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