Elie Hobeika (22 September 1956 – 24 January 2002) (Arabic: إيلي حبيقة) was a Lebanese Phalangist and Lebanese Forces militia commander during the Lebanese Civil War, and former MP. Hobeika gained notoriety when, as the leader of the Phalangist forces, he was accused in directing the massacre in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps on the outskirts of Beirut in 1982. He is believed to have recruited "the Young Men", the gang who were involved in the killings.

Hobeika was born in Kleiat, Lebanon to a Maronite family. According to The Guardian, he was said to have been deeply influenced by the massacre of much of his family and of his fiancée by Palestinian militiamen at the Damour massacre of 1976. In 1978, after leaving school, he joined the Banco do Brasil. At that time he was already involved with the Phalanges movement. He married Gina Raymond Nachaty in 1981. They had a son, Joseph.

The Tripartite Agreement was intended to end the Lebanese conflict. In December 1985, the various Christian militias, the Shiite Amal Movement and the Druze Progressive Socialist Party met in Damascus reaching agreement on political reforms as well as special relations with Syria. However on 15 January 1986, President Amine Gemayel and Samir Geagea organised a coup against Hobeika thus rendering the agreement null and void.

Bachir Gemayel (10 November 1947 – 14 September 1982) (first name also spelled Bashir and surname also spelled al-Jumayyil, El Gemaiel, Joomayyeel) (بشير الجميّل) was a Lebanese politician, militia commander, and president-elect. He was a senior member of the Phalange party and the commander of the Lebanese Forces militia amid the first several years of the Lebanese Civil War (1975–90). He was elected president on August 23, 1982 while the country was torn by civil war and occupied by both Israel and Syria. He was assassinated on September 14, 1982, along with 26 others, when a bomb exploded in the Beirut headquarters of the Phalange. The bomb was planted by Habib Tanious Shartouni. The FBI blamed the Syrian Social Nationalist Party.

Bachir was born on November 10, 1947 in the Achrafieh neighborhood of Beirut, the youngest of six children. The Gemayel family is originally from the Bikfaya village in the Matn District of Lebanon and is one of the most influential Christian families in Lebanon. His father was Pierre Gemayel, who founded the Phalange party in 1936 as a youth movement. The Phalange, a conservative party that though is officially secular, is supported mostly by Maronite Christians. Gemayel attended College de Notre Dame de Jamhour and the Institution Moderne du Liban (I.M.L) - Fanar. He completed his formal university education at St. Joseph University (Université Saint-Joseph - U.S.J.) in Beirut. After teaching for three years at the Lebanese Modern Institute, he graduated in 1971 with a degree in Law and another in Political Sciences in 1973. In 1971, Gemayel also took another law qualification from the American and International Law Academy in Dallas, Texas. Qualifying in 1972, he joined the bar association and opened an office in Hamra, West Beirut.

Samir Farid Geagea (Arabic: سمير فريد جعجع, also spelled Samir Ja‘ja‘), born October 25, 1952, is a Lebanese politician. He is also a senior figure in the March 14 Alliance, alongside Saad Hariri and Amine Gemayel.

He took leadership of the Lebanese Forces in 1986. After the civil war, there was increased pressure by Syria on Geagea to accept the Syrian presence or face charges.^{[citation needed]} Prior to his arrest, he was contacted by several sympathetic politicians and warned about the forthcoming proceedings and offered safe passage out of Lebanon. In 1994, four years after the end of the Lebanese Civil War, Geagea was tried for ordering four political assassinations, including the assassination of Lebanon's Prime Minister Rashid Karami in 1987, and the unsuccessful attempted assassination of Defense Minister Michel Murr in 1991. He denied all charges, but was found guilty and sentenced to four death sentences, each of which was commuted to life in prison. Geagea was imprisoned in solitary confinement below the Lebanese Ministry of Defense building in Beirut for the next 11 years. He is the only Lebanese militia leader to have been imprisoned for crimes committed during the Lebanese Civil War.