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During the 1948 Palestine war, two massacres were perpetrated by Zionist forces in the Palestinian village of Sa'sa'. The first occurred on the night of 14-15 February 1948, when Palmach forces attacked the village killing approximately 60 people. [1] [a] The second massacre occurred on 30 October 1948 when the village was conquered by the Israeli military as part of Operation Hiram.
One history of 1948 asserts that the reason for the attack was to restore Jewish public confidence in their fighting forces following the deaths of all the members of a platoon attempting to take supplies to Kfar Etzion a month previously. [3]
According to Efraim Karsh, on January 20-21 some 400 armed Arab fighters from 2nd Yarmuk Regiment of Arab Liberation Army based in Sa'sa' carried out attacks on isolated kibbutz Yechiam in western Galilee. [4]
Moshe Kelman was deputy commander of the attack on Al-Khisas of 18 December 1947. [5]
In February 1948, Yigal Allon, commander of the Palmach in the north, ordered an attack on Sa'sa'. The order was given to Moshe Kelman, the deputy commander of Third Battalion. The order read: "You have to blow up twenty houses and kill as many warriors as possible". [6] [7] According to Ilan Pappé, "warriors" should be read as "villagers" to properly understand the order. [6]
On February 15, 1948, a Palmach unit entered the village during the night and, without resistance, planted explosives against some of the houses. It was reported at the time that ten or more houses were totally or partially destroyed and 11 villagers were killed (5 of them small children). [8] According to the official history of the Haganah, the village had been used as a base for Arab fighters. [9] [7] However, press reports at the time cited by Khalidi belie this, since the Palmach units met "without opposition" in the village. [7] Moshe Kelman himself wrote that "We left behind 35 demolished houses and 60–80 dead bodies", [10] and historians estimate 60 people were killed and 16-20 houses demolished. [11] [12]
A second massacre occurred after the conquest of the village on 30 October during Operation Hiram. Historian Saleh Abdel Jawad writes that "many villagers" were killed. [13] [14] Those villagers who had not already fled were expelled. Northern Command OC Moshe Carmel later reported that he had seen evidence of killings, and an official investigation by Major Emanuel Yalan suggested that some villagers, including some with disabilities, may have been killed after the village was occupied. However, the relevant Israeli files remain closed to historians. [15]
"The History of the Haganah" by Ben-Zion Dinur described the attack as "one of the most daring raids into enemy territory." [7]
Currently, there are few remains of the Palestinian village of Sa'sa', with the exception of the village mosque, which has now been converted into the kibbutz cultural center.
In 1992, the Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi described the remains of the village: "Some of the old olive trees remain, and a number of walls and houses still stand. Some of the houses are presently used by kibbutz Sasa; one of them has an arched entrance and arched windows. A large portion of the surrounding land is forested, the rest is cultivated by Israeli farmers." [16]
Al-Dawayima, Dawaymeh or Dawayma was a Palestinian town, located in the former Hebron Subdistrict of Mandatory Palestine, and in what is now the Lakhish region, some 15 kilometres south-east of Kiryat Gat.
Al-Kabri was a Palestinian Arab town in the Galilee located 12.5 kilometers (7.8 mi) northeast of Acre. It was captured by the Haganah 21 May 1948, a week after the State of Israel was declared. In 1945, it had a population of 1,530 and a total area cultivated of 20,617 dunams. It is near the site of Tel Kabri.
Operation Hiram was a military operation conducted by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. It was led by General Moshe Carmel, and aimed at capturing the Upper Galilee region from the Arab Liberation Army (ALA) forces led by Fawzi al-Qawuqji and a Syrian battalion. The operation, which lasted 60 hours, ended just before the ceasefire with the neighboring Arab countries went into effect.
During the 1948 Palestine war, massacres and acts of terror were conducted by and against both sides. A campaign of massacres and violence against the Arab population, such as occurred at Lydda and Ramle and the Battle of Haifa, led to the expulsion and flight of over 700,000 Palestinians, with most of their urban areas being depopulated and destroyed. This violence and dispossession of the Palestinians is known today as the Nakba.
The Al-Kabri massacre occurred when the Israeli army attacked the Palestinian village of Al-Kabri on the night of May 20-21 1948, during the 1948 Palestine war. The attack was part of Operation Ben-Ami, itself a part of Plan Dalet. Orders were given to "attack with the aim of capturing, the villages of Kabri, Umm al Faraj and Al-Nahr, to kill the men [and] to destroy and set fire to the villages", orders which Meron Benvenisti states were "carried out to the letter". At least seven people were killed. The attack was committed partially as revenge for the March 27 Yehiam convoy ambush.
Hittin was a Palestinian village located 8 kilometers (5 mi) west of Tiberias before it was occupied by Israel during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war when most of its original residents became refugees. As the site of the Battle of Hattin in 1187, in which Saladin reconquered most of Palestine from the Crusaders, it has become an Arab nationalist symbol. The shrine of Nabi Shu'ayb, venerated by the Druze and Sunni Muslims as the tomb of Jethro, is on the village land. The village was ruled by the Ottoman Empire from the 16th century until the end of World War I, when Palestine became part of the British Mandate for Palestine. On July 17 1948, the village was occupied by Israel during the nakbaa, after its residents fled out of their homes because of Nazareth's occupation. in later years, the Moshavs Arbel and Kfar Zeitim were erected where Hittin used to be.
Al-Khisas, also known as Khisas or Khissas, was a Palestinian Arab village in the Safad Subdistrict in Mandatory Palestine. It was located 31 kilometers (19 mi) northeast of Safed on a natural terrace about 100 meters (330 ft) wide that formed when Lake al-Hula receded. To the west of the village was a valley known as Wadi al-Hasibani through which ran the Hasbani River.
The al-Khisas raid, also known as the al-Khisas massacre, was an attack on the Palestinian village of al-Khisas carried out by the Palmach on December 18, 1947 during the 1948 Palestine war. 10-15 Palestinian villagers were killed in the attack, including 5 children.
Sa'sa' was a Palestinian village, located 12 kilometres northwest of Safed, that was depopulated by Israeli forces during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. The village suffered two massacres committed by Haganah forces: one in mid-February 1948 and the other at the end of October the same year. Its place has been taken since 1949 by Sasa, an Israeli kibbutz.
The Balad al-Shaykh massacre was the killing of a large number of Palestinians by the Haganah in the village of Balad al-Shaykh during the early stages of the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine. It was one of the largest, and earliest, massacres during the 1948 Palestine war.
The Ein al Zeitun massacre occurred on May 1, 1948, during the 1948 Palestine war, when forces of the Palmach attacked the Palestinian village of Ein al-Zeitun, then part of the British Mandate for Palestine. 70+ villagers were killed in the attack.
Yazur was a Palestinian Arab town located 6 kilometers (3.7 mi) east of Jaffa. Mentioned in 7th century BCE Assyrian texts, the village was a site of contestation between Muslims and Crusaders in the 12th-13th centuries.
al-Tira was a Palestinian town located 7 kilometres south of Haifa. It was made up of five khirbets, including Khirbat al-Dayr where lie the ruins of St. Brocardus monastery and a cave complex with vaulted tunnels.
Nasir ad-Dīn was a small Palestinian Arab village 3 kilometers (1.9 mi) southwest of Tiberias, on the crest of a slope that overlooks the Sea of Galilee. The village had several springs to the east, south, and southeast. In the 1931 British census 179 people lived there, decreasing to 90 in a 1945 census. Nasir ad-Din and nearby al-Manara were in the same jurisdiction with 4,185 dunams of land, most of which was allocated to cereals.
Burayr was a Palestinian Arab village in the Gaza Subdistrict, 18 kilometers (11 mi) northeast of Gaza City. Its population in 1945 was 2,740 and it was depopulated during the 1948 Palestine war as part of the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight. It had an average elevation of 100 meters (330 ft).
Kafr Saba was a Palestinian village famous for its shrine dating to the Mamluk period and for a history stretching back for two millennia. In Roman times, it was called Capharsaba and was an important town in Palestine. By around 1000, it was noted as a village with a mosque. The people of Kafr Saba were said to have come from Hebron because of crop failures.
Zarnuqa, also Zarnuga, was a Palestinian Arab village in the Ramle Subdistrict. It was depopulated on 27–28 May 1948 during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.
Baysamun or Beisamoun was a small Palestinian Arab village, located 16.5 kilometers (10.3 mi) in the marshy Hula Valley northeast of Safad. In 1945, it had a population of 20. It was depopulated during the 1948 War on May 25, 1948, by the Palmach's First Battalion in Operation Yiftach.
Al-Zuq al-Fawqani was a Palestinian Arab village in the Safad Subdistrict. It was depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War on May 21, 1948, by the Palmach's First Battalion of Operation Yiftach. It was located 32 km northeast of Safad.
Moshe Kelman was an Israeli military officer. According to the testimony of numerous fellow soldiers, Kelman was responsible for ordering the Ein al-Zeitun massacre. He was also a key participant in the Lydda massacre.