The Karantina massacre took place early in the Lebanese Civil War

Lebanese Civil War

The Lebanese Civil War was a multifaceted civil war in Lebanon. The war lasted from 1975 to 1990 and resulted in an estimated 150,000 to 230,000 civilian fatalities. Another one million people were wounded, and today approximately 350,000 people remain displaced. There was also a mass exodus of...

 on January 18, 1976. With the breakdown in authority of the Lebanese government the militancy of radical factions increased. Black Saturday

Black Saturday (Lebanon)

Black Saturday was a series of massacres and armed clashes in Beirut, that occurred in the first stages of the Lebanese Civil War.On Saturday December 6, 1975, the bodies of four members of the rightist Kataeb Party , an organization grouping primarily Maronite Christians, were found in an...

 preceded Karantina by six weeks.

Karantina

Karantina

La Quarantaine, which is colloquially referred to as Karantina and sometimes spelled Quarantina, is a predominately low-income, mixed-use residential, commercial, and semi-industrial neighborhood in northeastern Beirut...

 was a predominantly Muslim

Muslim

A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

 slum

Slum

A slum, as defined by United Nations agency UN-HABITAT, is a run-down area of a city characterized by substandard housing and squalor and lacking in tenure security. According to the United Nations, the percentage of urban dwellers living in slums decreased from 47 percent to 37 percent in the...

 district in Christian

Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 east Beirut

Beirut

Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...

 controlled by forces of the Palestine Liberation Organization

Palestine Liberation Organization

The Palestine Liberation Organization is a political and paramilitary organization which was created in 1964. It is recognized as the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people" by the United Nations and over 100 states with which it holds diplomatic relations, and has enjoyed...

 (PLO), inhabited by Kurds, Syrians and Palestinians. The fighting and subsequent killings also involved an old quarantine area near the port and nearby Maslakh quarter.

Karantina was overrun by the Lebanese Christian militias, resulting in the deaths of approximately 1,000-1,500 people..

After Kataeb Regulatory Forces

Kataeb Regulatory Forces

The Kataeb Regulatory Forces – KRF or RF , Forces Regulatoires du Kataeb in French were the military wing of the right-wing Lebanese Christian Kataeb Party, otherwise known as the Phalange, from 1961 to 1977...

 (KRF), Guardians of the Cedars

Guardians of the Cedars

The Guardians of the Cedars – GoC , also designated Gardiens du Cedre or Gardiens des Cèdres in French, are a far-right ultranationalist Lebanese party and former militia in Lebanon...

 (GoC), NLP Tiger militia

Tigers Militia (Lebanon)

The Tigers Militia , also known as NLP Tigers or Tigers of the Liberals and PNL "Lionceaux" in French, was the military wing of the National Liberal Party during the Lebanese Civil War.- Origins :The NLP militia was first raised in October 1968 by Camille Chamoun at his own home town...

 and Lebanese Youth Movement (LYM) forces took control of the Karantina district on 18 January 1976, Tel al-Zaatar

Tel al-Zaatar Massacre

The Tel al-Zaatar massacre took place during the Lebanese Civil War on August 12, 1976. Tel al-Zaatar was a UNRWA administered Palestinian Refugee camp housing approximately 50,000-60,000 refugees in northeast Beirut.-Background:...

 was placed under siege.

The Damour massacre

Damour massacre

The Damour massacre took place on January 20, 1976 during the 1975–1990 Lebanese Civil War. Damour, a Christian town on the main highway south of Beirut, was attacked by the Palestine Liberation Organisation units...

was a reprisal for Karantina.