Editing 1982 Lebanon War (section)

===Siege of Beirut===
{{Main|Siege of Beirut|PLO withdrawal from Lebanon}}
[[File:Lebanon PLO ammunition stadium 1982.jpg|thumb|The stadium used as an ammunition supply site for the PLO, after Israeli airstrikes in 1982]]
The [[Siege of Beirut]] had begun on 14 June 1982: Israeli forces had completed the encirclement of the city the previous day. The Israelis chose to keep the city under siege rather than forcibly capture it, as they were unwilling to accept the heavy casualties that the heavy street fighting required to capture the city would have resulted in. Israeli forces bombarded targets within Beirut from land, sea, and air, and attempted to assassinate Palestinian leaders through airstrikes. The [[Israeli Navy]] maintained a blockade on the port of Beirut with a ring of missile boats and patrol boats supported by submarines.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yplvCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT250|title = Block by Block: The Challenges of Urban Operations &#91;Illustrated Edition&#93;|isbn = 978-1-78289-778-1|last1 = Robertson|first1 = William G.|date = 15 August 2014| publisher=Pickle Partners }}</ref>

The siege lasted until August, when an agreement was reached in August 1982. More than 14,000 PLO combatants evacuated the country in August and September, supervised by the [[Multinational Force in Lebanon]], an international peacekeeping force with troops from the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Italy. About 6,500 Fatah fighters relocated from Beirut to Jordan, Syria, [[Iraq]], Sudan, both [[Yemen Arab Republic|North]] and [[South Yemen]], Greece, and Tunisia—the latter of which became the new PLO headquarters.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/30/newsid_2536000/2536441.stm |work=BBC News | title=1982: PLO leader forced from Beirut | date=30 August 1982 | access-date=20 April 2010}}</ref>

Israel withdrew its forces from west Beirut on 29 September, officially ending Operation Peace for Galilee. [[Philip Habib]], [[Ronald Reagan]]'s envoy to Lebanon, provided an understanding (i.e., assurance) to the PLO that the Palestinian civilians in the refugee camps would not be harmed. However, increased hostilities against the US resulted in the April [[1983 United States Embassy bombing]]. In response, the US brokered the [[May 17 Agreement]], in an attempt to stall hostilities between Israel and Lebanon. However, this agreement eventually failed to take shape, and hostilities continued. These attacks were attributed to Iranian-backed Islamist guerrillas. Following this incident, international peacekeeping forces were withdrawn from Lebanon.