Abductions, assassinations and disappearances

In the first few years of the war, hundreds of civilians—mostly Lebanese and Palestinian—were victims of abductions that took place in the context of sectarian-based violence or Lebanese-Palestinian violence. A vast number of them ended up being forcibly disappeared. As the abductions continued, this period was further marked by a clear targeting of foreigners and foreign entities in the country, including civilians active in the diplomatic, educational, religious, and medical and press corps. Responsibility for a vast number of these were claimed by the Islamic Jihad, a Shi’a pro-Iranian armed group widely seen as the predecessor of Hezbollah, which only came into official existence in 1985. The abductions generally either ended in enforced disappearances, whereby the fate of the victims remained unknown, or ended in the victims’ release through negotiations or exchanges between militias.