| Ein al-Zeitun massacre | |
|---|---|
| Part of 1948 Palestine war | |
| Location | Ein al Zeitun |
| Date | May 1, 1948 |
| Deaths | 23-70 |
| Victims | Arab prisoners |
| Perpetrators | Palmach |
The Ein al Zeitun massacre occurred on May 1, 1948, during the 1948 War, at the Palestinian Arab village of Ein al-Zeitun just north of Safed, then part of the British Mandate for Palestine. According to various historians, 23-70 Arab prisoners were killed by the Palmach. [1]
Ein al Zeitun at this time was a Palestinian Arab village of about 800 inhabitants. It was believed by local Jews that Arabs from the village had taken part in a 1929 massacre of Jews in 1929 Palestine riots and the massacre is assumed to be as a point of revenge. [2] The attack on Ein al Zeitun was conducted by the 3rd Battalion of the Palmach under the command of Moshe Kelman, as a preliminary operation to prepare for an assault on the Arab quarter of Safed. Davidka mortar bombs were used for the first time. The village was taken without much difficulty. Most of the villagers fled during the battle, and the remainder, apart from 30 to 100 men aged 20-40 were forcibly expelled afterwards.[ citation needed ]
The Palmach soldiers then began to destroy the village. Palmach officer Elad Peled recalled that "our men began blowing up the village. The intoxication of victory blinded them and they went berserk, breaking and destroying property. The Jews of Safad saw Ein Zeitun blown up and crushed, and were 'happy', seeing in it vengeance for what the Arabs of Ein Zeitun carried out against the Jews of Safad and Ein Zeitim." [3] [4]
One Yiftah HQ report says that "30" Arab prisoners were "transferred to Golani [Brigade]". [5] But a day or two later two Palmach soldiers, acting on Third Battalion OC Moshe Kelman's orders, murdered several dozen prisoners, probably including young men from Ein al-Zeitun, in the gully between Ein al-Zeitun and Safad. [6] According to Netiva Ben-Yehuda, the captive men were tied up and thrown into the deep gully between Ein al Zeitun and left for two days. Kelman then decided to "get rid of this problem altogether" but most of his men refused. Finally, he found two willing to do it, and the prisoners were killed. Two days later, word of the massacre leaked out, and it was feared that British or UN investigators would arrive, so some soldiers, including Ben-Yehuda, were detailed to untie the corpses and bury them. [7]
According to a testimony Aharon Yo'eli, a soldier present, obtained by Israeli historian Uri Milstein "2 Israelis came from Safad and took 23 men from Ayn Zaytoon, stripped them of watches and wallets, took them to a hill and shot them. Israelis were looking for other Israelis to kill Arabs; many Jews in Safad were Hassidis (strictly observant). Other Arabs were expelled towards Germak mountain". [8]
The Syrians subsequently charged that "women had been raped". [9]
The destruction of Ein al Zeitun and the consequent massacre terrified the Arabs of Safed and probably contributed to their flight in the coming days. [10]
Hans Lebrecht says he was ordered to build a temporary pump station and divert the village stream, Ayn Zaytun, to supply water to his battalion. The village had been destroyed, and among the debris there were many bodies. "In particular, we found many bodies of women, children and babies near the local mosque. I convinced the army to burn the bodies." [11]
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, was marked by heavy fighting between Arabs and Jews, and ended just before the ceasefire with the neighboring Arab countries went into effect.
Killings and massacres during the 1948 Palestine war resulted in the deaths of hundreds of civilians and unarmed soldiers.
Safed is a city in the Northern District of Israel. Located at an elevation of up to 937 metres (3,074 ft), Safed is the highest city in the Galilee and in Israel. It is known as the "capital" of the Galilee.
The al-Khisas massacre took place in al-Khisas in Mandatory Palestine on December 18, 1947, near the Syrian border and was carried out by Haganah militiamen, possibly from Palmach. Twelve Arab residents of Al-Khisas were killed, four of them children.
The Palmach was the elite fighting force of the Haganah, the underground army of the Yishuv during the period of the British Mandate for Palestine. The Palmach was established in May 1941. By the outbreak of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, it consisted of over 2,000 men and women in three fighting brigades and auxiliary aerial, naval and intelligence units. With the creation of Israel's army, the three Palmach Brigades were disbanded. This and political reasons compelled many of the senior Palmach officers to resign in 1950.
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.
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The 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine was the first phase of the 1947–1949 Palestine war. It broke out after the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution on 29 November 1947 recommending the adoption of the Partition Plan for Palestine.
Ein al-Zeitun, also spelled Ein Zaytun, Ein ez-Zeitun, Ain al-Zaytun or Ain el-Zeitun, was a Palestinian Arab village, located 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) north of Safed in the Upper Galilee. During the early Ottoman period, Ein el-Zeitun had a mixed population of Muslims and Jews. Later, in the 19th century, it became entirely Muslim. The village's small population and land area as well as its proximity to Safad made it a suburb of the city. In 1945, the village had a population of 820 inhabitants and a total land area of 1,100 dunams. The village was depopulated in 1948, after the Ein al-Zeitun massacre.
'Akbara is an Arab village in the Israeli municipality of Safed, which included in 2010 more than 200 families. It is 2.5 km south of Safed City. The village was rebuilt in 1977, close to the old village destroyed in 1948 during the 1947–1949 Palestine war.
Operation Yiftach was a Palmach offensive carried out between 28 April and 23 May 1948. The objectives were to capture Safed and to secure the eastern Galilee before the British Mandate ended on 14 May 1948. It was carried out by two Palmach battalions commanded by Yigal Allon.
Fir'im was a Palestinian Arab village in the Safad Subdistrict that was depopulated during the 1948 Palestine war. It was first attacked during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on May 2, 1948, by the Palmach's First Battalion during Operation Yiftach. In 1945 the population had been 740.
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Taytaba was a Palestinian-Arab village in the Safad Subdistrict, located 5 kilometers north of Safad. It was depopulated during the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine in May 1948 under Operation Hiram. In 1945 it had a population of 530 and a total area of 8,453 dunams, 99.8% of which was Arab-owned.
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.
The 1948 Palestine war was fought in the territory of what had been, at the start of the war, British-ruled Mandatory Palestine. It was the first war of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the broader Arab–Israeli conflict. During the war, the British withdrew from the territory and the State of Israel was established, leading to it being known in Israel as the War of Independence.