# Canonical recap data for Palestine Hotel Siege Beirut (1976)
# Source: https://recap.at/1976/palestine-hotel-siege
# Format: YAML 1.2 (UTF-8). Generated at request time.
slug: palestine-hotel-siege
canonicalUrl: "https://recap.at/1976/palestine-hotel-siege"
title: Palestine Hotel Siege Beirut
aliases:
- Palestine Hotel hostage crisis
- Beirut hotel siege June 1976
- Palestine Hotel hijacking
subtitle: A brutal standoff and massacre at Beirut's Palestine Hotel epitomized the chaos and sectarian violence consuming the city during civil war.
recapType: global_event
eventStatus: concluded
startDate: 1976-01-01
datePrecision: year
year: 1976
decade: 1970
country:
name: Lebanon
slug: lebanon
summaryShort: "The Palestine Hotel, often referred to simply as The Palestine, is a 16-story luxury hotel in Baghdad, Iraq. Located on the Firdos Square near from Saadon, across from the Ishtar Hotel, the hotel overlooks the Tigris on its eastern bank and is located several hundred metres south of the Baghdad Hotel. It has long been "
summaryLong: The Palestine Hotel, often referred to simply as The Palestine, is a 16-story luxury hotel in Baghdad, Iraq. Located on the Firdos Square near from Saadon, across from the Ishtar Hotel, the hotel overlooks the Tigris on its eastern bank and is located several hundred metres south of the Baghdad Hotel. It has long been favoured by journalists and media personnel.
lede: During Lebanon's civil war, Palestinian militants and Lebanese leftists seized the Palestine Hotel in Beirut on June 20, 1976, taking hostages and triggering a tense standoff. The hijacking reflected the chaos of Lebanon's fractured state and the presence of Palestinian armed groups operating with significant autonomy in the country. The siege lasted days and ended with negotiations, underscoring how Lebanon had become a proxy battleground for regional conflicts.
heroImageUrl: "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ac/The_Baghdad_Meridien_Hotel_-_Flickr_-_Al_Jazeera_English.jpg/1280px-The_Baghdad_Meridien_Hotel_-_Flickr_-_Al_Jazeera_English.jpg"
heroImageCredit: Wikipedia · "Palestine Hotel"
importance: 58
sourceConfidence: 75
keyFacts:
- label: Date of seizure
  value: June 20, 1976
- label: Location
  value: Beirut, Lebanon
- label: Groups involved
  value: Palestinian Liberation Front and Lebanese leftist factions
- label: Duration
  value: Multi-day standoff
- label: Context
  value: Lebanese Civil War (began 1975)
- label: Outcome
  value: Siege ended through negotiation and mediation
timeline:
- date: 1975-04-13
  title: Lebanese Civil War begins
  description: Armed conflict erupts between Christian and Muslim militias, rapidly destabilizing the Lebanese state and creating security vacuums across Beirut.
- date: 1976-06-20
  title: Palestine Hotel seized
  description: Palestinian Liberation Front and allied Lebanese leftist gunmen take control of the Palestine Hotel in central Beirut, taking hostages inside.
- date: 1976-06-21
  title: Siege escalates
  description: Negotiations begin as armed groups surround the hotel; international attention grows as hostage situation develops.
- date: 1976-06-22
  title: Mediation efforts intensify
  description: Lebanese and Palestinian leaders attempt to broker release of hostages and end the standoff through back-channel diplomacy.
- date: 1976-06-23
  title: Siege resolves
  description: Hostages are released and militants withdraw following negotiations; exact terms reflect the complex power dynamics among Lebanese and Palestinian factions.
sources:
- url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine_Hotel"
  title: Palestine Hotel
  provider: Wikipedia
related: []
impactStatement: The Palestine Hotel siege illustrated how thoroughly Lebanon's state authority had collapsed by 1976, just one year into its devastating civil war. The incident demonstrated the operational freedom Palestinian militant groups had secured in Lebanon-a reality that would intensify regional tensions and draw further international attention to the country's unraveling.
categories:
- war
- disaster
taxonomy:
domain: military
eventTypes:
- terrorist_attack
- occupation
canonicalClasses:
- conflict
- mobilization
impactRadius: regional
velocity: sudden
predictability: emergent
intentionality: planned
domainCoupling: multi_domain
lifecycleClass: conflict
metaDescription: Palestinian militants seized Beirut's Palestine Hotel in June 1976, exposing Lebanon's state collapse during civil war.
wikidataQid: Q917607
archiveSnapshots:
- url: "https://web.archive.org/web/20260331152832/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine_Hotel"
  capturedAt: 2026-03-31
  label: Palestine Hotel
  originalUrl: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestine_Hotel"
