La Quarantine, known in Arabic as Karantina, was a Muslim-inhabited district in mostly Christian East Beirut controlled by forces of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO),[4] and inhabited by Palestinians, Kurds, Syrians, Armenians and Lebanese Sunnis.

[5][6] The fighting and subsequent killings also involved an old Quarantine area near the port and nearby Maslakh quarter.

[7][8][9] Karantina was overrun by militias of the right-wing and mostly Christian Lebanese Front, specifically the Kataeb Party (Phalangists),[10][11] resulting in the deaths of approximately 600–1,500 people,[2] mostly Lebanese Muslims.

[8] According to then-Washington Post-correspondent Jonathan Randal, "Many Lebanese Muslim men and boys were rounded up and separated from the women and children and massacred," while the women and young girls were violently raped and robbed.

[8][12] After Kataeb Regulatory Forces (KRF), Guardians of the Cedars (GoC), National Liberal Party's Tiger militia and Lebanese Youth Movement (LYM) forces took control of the Karantina district, the Tel al-Zaatar refugee camp was besieged for five months, ending in the Tel al-Zaatar massacre.