50 years after Lebanon's civil war began, a bullet-riddled bus stands as a reminder

BEIRUT (AP) — It was an ordinary day in Beirut. In one part of Lebanon's capital, a church was inaugurated, with the leader of the Christian Phalange party there. In another, Palestinian factions held a military parade. Phalangists and Palestinians had clashed, again, that morning.

What happened next on April 13, 1975, would change the course of Lebanon, plunging it into 15 years of civil war that would kill about 150,000 people, leave 17,000 missing and lead to foreign intervention. Beirut became synonymous with snipers, kidnappings and car bombs.

Lebanon has never fully grappled with the war's legacy, and in many ways it has never fully recovered, 50 years later. The government on Sunday marked the anniversary with a small ceremony and minute of silence, a rare official acknowledgement of the legacy of the conflict.

Unrest had been brewing. Palestinian militants had begun launching attacks against Israel from Lebanese territory. Leftist groups and many Muslims in Lebanon sympathized with the Palestinian cause. Christians and some other groups saw the Palestinian militants as a threat.

At the time, Mohammad Othman was 16, a Palestinian refugee in the Tel al-Zaatar camp east of Beirut.

Three buses had left camp that morning, carrying students like him as well as militants from a coalition of hardline factions that had broken away from the Palestinian Liberation Organization. They passed through the Ein Rummaneh neighborhood without incident and joined the military parade.

The buses were supposed to return together, but some participants were tired after marching and wanted to go back early. They hired a small bus from the street, Othman said. Thirty-three people packed in.

They were unaware that earlier that day, small clashes had broken out between Palestinians and Phalange Party members guarding the church in Ein Rummaneh. A bodyguard for party leader Pierre Gemayel had been killed.

Suddenly the road was blocked, and gunmen began shooting at the bus “from all sides,” Othman recalled.

Some passengers had guns they had carried in the parade, Othman said, but they were unable to draw them quickly in the crowded bus.

A camp neighbor fell dead on top of him. The man’s 9-year-old son was also killed. Othman was shot in the shoulder.

“The shooting didn’t stop for about 45 minutes until they thought everyone was dead,” he said. Othman said paramedics who eventually arrived had a confrontation with armed men who tried to stop them from evacuating him.

Twenty-two people were killed.

Some Lebanese say the men who attacked the bus were responding to an assassination attempt against Gemayel by Palestinian militants. Others say the Phalangists had set up an ambush intended to spark a wider conflict.

Marwan Chahine, a Lebanese-French journalist who wrote a book about the events of April 13, 1975, said he believes both narratives are wrong.

Chahine said he found no evidence of an attempt to kill Gemayel, who had left the church by the time his bodyguard was shot. And he said the attack on the bus appeared to be more a matter of trigger-happy young men at a checkpoint than a “planned operation.”

There had been past confrontations, "but I think this one took this proportion because it arrived after many others and at a point when the authority of the state was very weak,” Chahine said.

The Lebanese army had largely ceded control to militias, and it did not respond to the events in Ein Rummaneh that day. The armed Palestinian factions had been increasingly prominent in Lebanon after the PLO was driven out of Jordan in 1970, and Lebanese Christians had also increasingly armed themselves.

“The Kataeb would say that the Palestinians were a state within a state,” Chahine said, using the Phalange Party's Arabic name. “But the reality was, you had two states in a state. Nobody was following any rules."

Selim Sayegh, a member of parliament with the Kataeb Party who was 14 and living in Ein Rummaneh when the fighting started, said he believes war had been inevitable since the Lebanese army backed down from an attempt to take control of Palestinian camps two years earlier.

Sayegh said men at the checkpoint that day saw a bus full of Palestinians with “weapons apparent” and "thought that is the second wave of the operation” that started with the killing of Gemayel's bodyguard.

The war unfolded quickly from there. Alliances shifted. New factions formed. Israel and Syria occupied parts of the country. The United States intervened, and the U.S. embassy and Marine barracks were targeted by bombings. Beirut was divided between Christian and Muslim sectors.

In response to the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon, a Shiite militant group was formed in the early 1980s with Iranian backing: Hezbollah. It would grow to be arguably the most powerful armed non-state group in the region.

Hezbollah was the only militant group allowed to keep its weapons after Lebanon's civil war, given special status as a “resistance force” because Israel was still in southern Lebanon. After the group was badly weakened last year in a war with Israel that ended with a ceasefire, there has been increasing pressure for it to disarm.

Othman said he became a fighter after the war started because “there were no longer schools or anything else to do.” Later he would disarm and became a pharmacist.

He remembers being bewildered when a peace accord in 1989 ushered in the end of civil war: “All this war and bombing, and in the end they make some deals and it’s all over.”

Of the 10 others who survived the bus attack, he said, three were killed a year later when Christian militias attacked the Tel al-Zaatar camp. Another was killed in a 1981 bombing at the Iraqi embassy. A couple died of natural causes, one lives in Germany, and he has lost track of the others.

The bus has also survived, as a reminder.

Ahead of the 50th anniversary of the attack, it was towed from storage on a farm to the private Nabu Museum in Heri, north of Beirut. Visitors took photos with it and peered into bullet holes in its rusted sides.

Ghida Margie Fakih, a museum spokesperson, said the bus will remain on display indefinitely as a “wake-up call” to remind Lebanese not to go down the path of conflict again.

The bus “changed the whole history in Lebanon and took us somewhere that nobody wanted to go,” she said.

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam stands a moment of silence marking the 50th anniversary of the Lebanese civil war at Martyrs' Square in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam lays a wreath at Martyrs' statue marking the 50th anniversary of the Lebanese civil war in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, April 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Lebanese Mounir Al-Masri, a former fighter, speaks as he stands inside his sister's apartment that was damaged during Lebanon's civil war on a former Beirut frontline, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

A man checks the bus that started the Lebanese civil war on April 13, 1975, when an ambush by Christian gunmen of a busload of Palestinians kicked off the war that lasted 15 years, displayed at Nabu Museum in Batroun, northern Lebanon, Saturday, April 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

People view the bus that started the Lebanese civil war on April 13, 1975, when an ambush by Christian gunmen of a busload of Palestinians kicked off the war that lasted 15 years, displayed at Nabu Museum in Batroun, northern Lebanon, Saturday, April 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

A man walks past a building full of bullet holes from previous fighting during Lebanon's civil war on a former Beirut frontline, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

The Dome City Center, left, known as "The Egg," an unfinished cinema that was damaged from previous fighting during Lebanon's civil war on a former Beirut frontline, stands in Lebanon, Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

The Lebanese capital's landmark Holiday Inn hotel riddled with bullets and shells damaged from previous fighting during Lebanon's civil war on a former Beirut frontline, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

A building that is still riddled with bullets and shells from previous fighting during Lebanon's civil war on a former Beirut frontline, Lebanon, Wednesday, April 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

FILE - Recruits in the Phalange Party militia go through training procedures at the Christina Militia Security Garrison, Jan. 3, 1977, in Beirut, Lebanon. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - A banner shows small portraits of people reported missing during the Lebanese civil war and aftermath, during the ninth anniversary of an ongoing sit-in, in front the U.N headquarters in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, April 11, 2014. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File)

FILE - A Muslim militiaman aims his rifle down an alley at Christian forces on the other side of the Green Line, in Beirut, Lebanon, Jan. 4, 1982. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - A Palestinian Fatah guerrilla fires a machine gun at Syrian troops, near the resort town of Bhamdoun, mount Lebanon. (AP Photo/Zuhair Saade, File)

Mohammed Othman, a Palestinian survivor of the April 13, 1975 attack on a bus carrying Palestinians that sparked Lebanon's civil war, steps out the Palestine Martyrs Cemetery where they buried some of those killed that day, in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, April 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Mohammed Othman, a Palestinian survivor of the April 13, 1975 attack on a bus carrying Palestinians that sparked Lebanon's civil war, prays over the graves of those killed that day, at the Palestine Martyrs Cemetery, in Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, April 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

TENERIFE, Canary Islands (AP) — The first passengers to be evacuated from the hantavirus-hit cruise ship that is off Spain's Canary Islands arrived Sunday afternoon in Madrid, where they are being taken to a military hospital.

Spanish nationals were the first to leave the MV Hondius, which remains anchored off Tenerife, the largest island in the Spanish archipelago off West Africa's coast. The ship arrived early the same morning.

Planes carrying French and Canadian nationals left Tenerife after the Spanish plane. A Dutch plane was due to depart with Germans, Belgians and Greeks, while an American plane was expected to reach Tenerife around 5:30 p.m. local time (1630 GMT), according to FlightRadar 24, which shows live aircraft flight tracking details.

Maria van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization's top epidemiologist, said that a number of other flights were expected to arrive Sunday, including ones to repatriate passengers to Turkey, the United Kingdom and Ireland.

None of the more than 140 people on the Hondius has shown symptoms of the virus, officials from Spain's health ministry, WHO and cruise company Oceanwide Expeditions said.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus sought to reassure the public, repeating on Sunday that the risk for the general public from the outbreak is low.

Even so, those disembarking and personnel working at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife wore protective gear during the evacuation process, including face masks, hazmat suits and respirators. Video obtained by The Associated Press showed passengers on the tarmac donning similar suits and being sprayed down with disinfectant.

A WHO spokesperson didn't immediately respond to a question from the AP about why such security protocols were being taken, despite officials' repeated reassurances about the low general risk from the virus.

Passengers and some crew members from more than 20 nationalities on board will be evacuated throughout Sunday into Monday.

After reaching Madrid, those evacuated on the first plane will be under quarantine, Spanish health authorities say. Only the 14 Spanish nationals on board will quarantine in the country.

Authorities have said that the passengers and crew members disembarking will be checked for symptoms, have no contact with the local population and will only be taken off the ship once evacuation flights are ready to fly them to their destinations. Tedros and Spain’s health and interior ministers are supervising the operation in Tenerife.

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday thanked the Canary Islands for allowing the arrival of the Hondius.

Hantavirus usually spreads when people inhale contaminated residue of rodent droppings and isn’t easily transmitted between people. But the Andes virus detected in the cruise ship outbreak may be able to spread between people in rare cases. Symptoms usually show between one and eight weeks after exposure.

Three people have died since the outbreak, and five passengers who left the ship are infected with hantavirus, which can cause life-threatening illness.

Passengers and crew members disembarking are leaving behind their luggage, and are allowed to take only a small bag with essential items, a cellphone, a charger, and documentation.

Some crew, as well as the body of a passenger who died on board, will remain on the ship, which will sail on to Rotterdam, Netherlands, where it will undergo disinfection, Spanish authorities said.

The expected sailing time to Rotterdam is around five days, the cruise company said.

The United Kingdom will send planes to evacuate its citizens. Americans on board will be quarantined at a medical center in Nebraska.

Twenty-nine people will be on board the Dutch charter flight, including Dutch nationals and people of other nationalities, the Dutch Foreign Ministry said.

The five French passengers being repatriated Sunday will be hospitalized for 72 hours for monitoring, after which they will quarantine at home for 45 days, France's Foreign Ministry said.

U.K. passengers and crew will be hospitalized for observation once they are flown home, British authorities say.

Australia is sending a plane, expected to arrive on Monday, to evacuate its nationals and those from nearby countries such as New Zealand and unspecified Asian countries, Spanish Health Minister Mónica García said. Its plane will be the last to leave Tenerife, she said.

Norway has sent an ambulance plane to Tenerife with personnel trained to transport patients with high-risk infections, its Directorate for Civil Protection told public broadcaster NRK.

The ambulance plane is owned by the European Union, but operated by Norway.

British Army medics have parachuted onto the remote South Atlantic territory of Tristan da Cunha, where one of the 221 residents has a suspected case of hantavirus.

The patient was a passenger on the MV Hondius and disembarked last month.

The U.K. defense ministry says a team of six paratroopers and two medical clinicians jumped Saturday from a Royal Air Force transport plane, which also dropped oxygen and medical equipment.

Tristan da Cunha is Britain’s most remote inhabited overseas territory, about 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers) from the nearest inhabited island, St. Helena. The group of volcanic islands has no airstrip and is usually accessible only by boat on a six-day voyage from Cape Town, South Africa.

Meanwhile, a Spanish woman in the southeastern province of Alicante suspected of being infected tested negative for hantavirus, Spanish health authorities said Saturday.

The woman was a passenger on the same flight as the Dutch woman who died in Johannesburg after traveling on the cruise ship.

Suman Naishadham reported from Madrid. Angela Charlton in Paris, Jill Lawless in London, and Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, contributed to this report.

British Army medics parachute onto the south Atlantic territory of Tristan da Cunha, where one of the 221 residents has a suspected case of hanatavirus, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (British Ministry of Defence via AP)

A Spanish government plane takes off with passengers from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius at the airport in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Arturo Rodriguez)

Passengers are disembarked from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Passengers sit inside a bus after being disembarked from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Passengers stand next to a Spanish government plane after disembarking from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius at the airport in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Arturo Rodriguez)

A passenger waves to the Guardia Civil officers as they are disembarked from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo)

Passengers watch as others are disembarked from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo)

Passengers are disembarked from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo)

Passengers are disembarked from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Passengers stand on the deck of the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius after its arrival at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Passengers are being disembarked from the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo)

A Civil Guard border police stands guard following the arrival of hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo)

Civil Guard border police officers following the arrival of hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo)

Passengers and crew at the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius after arriving at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Passengers at the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius after arriving at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

A passenger stands at the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius after its arrival at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Civil Guard officers patrol next to the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius after its arrival at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

View from the bridge of the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius after its arrival at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo)

A passenger checks his camera inside his cabin on the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, during the voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)

A passenger on the the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, takes a photo of the ship's weighing anchor in Praia, during the voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)

Passengers on the the hantavirus-stricken cruise ship, MV Hondius, watch epidemiologists board the boat in Praia, during their voyage to Spain's port of Tenerife, May 6, 2026. (AP Photo)

The hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius is seen at anchor after arriving at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

The hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius is seen at anchor after arriving at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

The hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius is seen at anchor after arriving at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Workers set up temporary shelters in the area where passengers from the MV Hondius cruise ship are expected to arrive at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, speaks to the media near the area where passengers from the MV Hondius are expected to arrive at the port of Port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Saturday, May 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

The hantavirus-stricken cruise ship MV Hondius is seen at anchor after arriving at the port of Granadilla in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, Sunday, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)