The siege of Tel al-Zaatar (Arabic: حصار تل الزعتر, French: Siège de Tel al-Zaatar), alternatively known as the massacre of Tel al-Zaatar, was an armed siege of Tel al-Zaatar (meaning Hill of Thyme in Arabic), a fortified, UNRWA-administered refugee camp housing Palestinian refugees in northeastern Beirut, that ended on August 12, 1976 with the massacre of at least 1,500 people. The siege began in January of 1976 with an attack by Christian Lebanese militias led by the Lebanese Front as part of a wider campaign to expel Palestinians, especially those affiliated with the opposing Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from northern Beirut. After five months, the siege turned into a full-scale military assault in June and ended with the massacre in August 1976.