"On 18th December [1947] there was trouble in the Huleh Valley when Jews entered the Arab village of Khissas, near the Syrian frontier, and killed 10 and wounded 5 Arabs, most of whom were women and children, with grenades and machine-gun fire. They withdrew without suffering any casualties after leaving pamphlets stating that the attack was carried out by the Haganah as a reprisal for casualties suffered in Safad, and an incident near Khissas where a Jew had recently been killed by Arabs. The latter event had been in turn a reprisal for the shooting of an Arab by a Jewish Settlement policeman. So the system of one life for another, and often ten lives for another, was fostered. The attack on Khissas, in which 2 Lebanese and 2 Syrian visitors had been killed, resulted in the first hostile invasion of Arab irregulars over the frontier from Syria."

Source: Wilson, Cordon and Search, p. 159.

"The following night [i.e., following the riot at the Haifa refinery] the Arab village of Balad es Sheik, which lies three miles southeast of Haifa, was attacked by a strong party of armed Haganah, who entered the village dressed as Arabs under heavy covering fire from the high ground. Firing sub-machine guns and throwing grenades into the houses, they succeeded in killing 14 Arabs, of whom 10 were women and children, and wounding 11. Their own casualties were slight."

Source: Wilson, Cordon and Search, p. 158.

"In the evening of January 30-31, 1947 a mixed force of the First Battalion of Palmach and the 'Carmel' Brigade under the command of Haim Avinoam attacked the village of Balad al-Shaikh (now Tel Hanan). In this operation more than sixty of the enemy, most of them noncombatants, were killed in their houses."

Source: An article by Israeli historian Arieh Vitzhaqi in the April 14, 1972, issue of the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot, translated in "From the Hebrew Press," Journal of Palestine Studies, vol. 1, no. 4 (summer 1972), p. 144. Also quoted in Hadawi, Bitter Harvest, p. 88.

"In the evening of December 30-31 a mixed force of the First Battalion of the Palmach and the 'Carmel Brigade' under the command of Haim Avinoam attacked the village of Balad al-Shaikh; in this operation more than sixty of the enemy were killed in their houses.... The attacking units entered the village and started operating inside the houses and because of the heavy firing in the rooms, it was impossible to avoid hitting women and children also."

Source: Who Are the Terrorists?, p. 21 (translating from Ha Sefer Ha-Palmach [The Book of the Palmach], Tel Aviv: Ha-Kibbutz Ha-Meuchad, 1955, p. 55).

"One Sunday in January [1948] a large truck loaded with oranges parked in the centre of Jaffa between Barclays bank and a government office Building. The truck was driven by two Stern Gang terrorists. They had failed on a previous attempt to enter Jaffa, when Arab sentries guarding access to the city had become suspicious and opened fire on the truck, Now on their second try, they had penetrated into the heart of the city with a truck that contained more than just oranges.

Disguised as Arabs, the experienced terrorists walked away from the vehicle, stopping for coffee at a nearby restaurant before leaving Jaffa. Soon after, an explosion demolished many buildings in the centre of the city. According to a Jaffa resident, Basil Ennab, one of the buildings destroyed was 'sort of a feeding centre for children,'[2] many of whom were among the over 100 casualties."

[2] Middle East Centre, Saint Anthony's College (Oxford, UK), Thames Interviews, box II, file 1.

Source: Palumbo, pp. 83-84. See generally Chapter V, "The Fall of Jaffa," pp. 82-94.

"The Katamon district in West Jerusalem was another area from which the local inhabitants were driven out by the Haganah. Populated by mainly Christian Arabs with some Muslim and British residents, Katamon took its name from an Orthodox monastery situated on a hill which dominated the district. According to Sami Haddawi, a long-time resident of Katamon, the section was regarded as a 'strategic area' which the Jewish forces needed if they were to secure their hold over West Jerusalem. On the night of 3-4 January, the Haganah made its move.

The target was the Semiramis Hotel, one of the well-known landmarks of the district. The hotel was only two blocks away from Sami Haddawi's home so that he clearly recalls the huge explosion when the Semiramis was dynamited by the Zionists. A total of twenty-six people were killed, including a Spanish diplomat and numerous women and children. The Haganah claimed that the hotel had been 'used as a base for marauding Arab gangs and headquarters of the Arab military youth organization.' But the British administration, which still exercised at least nominal control, investigated the incident and found that the Jewish charge that the Semiramis was a military headquarters was 'entirely without foundation.' The British report called the bombing 'wholesale murder of innocent people.'[10]"

[10] Central Zionist Archives (Jerusalem) S25/4013.

Source: Palumbo, p. 98. Note that the date given for the bombing appears to be wrong, as most sources place the blast on the night of January 4/5.

"In this operation, which was for many years to be regarded as a model raid because of the high standard of its execution, twenty houses were blown up over their inhabitants, and some sixty Arabs were killed, most of them women and children."

Source: An article by Israeli historian Arieh Vitzhaqi from the April 14, 1972, issue of the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot, translated in "From the Hebrew Press," Journal of Palestine Studies, vol. 1, no. 4 (summer 1972), p. 145. Also quoted in Hadawi, Bitter Harvest, p. 88; and Who Are the Terrorists?, p. 21-22.

"During the night of May 1, 1948, a Palmach unit, with mules loaded with ammunition, advanced towards the village of Ein ez Zeitun by way of Tall al Durraiyat, which overlooks the village to the north. From the top of the hill, Palmach soldiers rolled barrels filled with explosives down the hill to the village and threw hand grenades, killing and injuring many of the villagers."

Source: Nazzal, The Palestinian Exodus, pp. 34-35.

After the Palmach took Ayn al-Zaytun on May 1, "several villagers apparently were shot by the Palmach troops." [from note 133 on page 321] "Some 37 of the young men caught in the village were detained. They were probably among the 70 or so Arab prisoners massacred by two Palmach 3rd Battalion soldiers, on Battalion OC Moshe Kelman's orders, on 3 or 4 May in the gully between Ein az Zeitun and Safad." [from page 102]

"Kelman's company commanders all refused to carry out the massacre or to allow their men to carry it out. The battalion OC in the end had to use two 'broken' men, who did not belong to the fighting formations and who claimed that they had suffered at Arab hands earlier in the war, to do the killing. Afterwards, Kelman assigned Ben-Yehuda [Netiva Ben-Yehuda--see below] to untie the hands of the dead as a Red Cross visit to the area was expected." [from note 133 on page 321]

Source: Morris, Birth, p. 102 and note 133 on p. 321.

"The historian Uri Milstein presented in his book series 'The History of the War of Independence' a number of massacres. Three more cases came to his knowledge after he finished writing. One case happened in Ayn Zaytoon. According to Milstein two massacres happened there in addition to the case described by Netiva Ben Yehuda in her book 'Within the Bounds' (mibe'ad la'avutot). Milstein possesses a testimony from a soldier named Aharon Yo'eli: 'Three men from Safad came to Ayn Zaytoon, they took 23 Arabs, told them they were murderers and gangsters, took from them their watches and put them in their pockets, led them over the hills and killed them. This was the revenge of the Jews of Safad. I understood that our commanders were looking for additional killers to execute such jobs. Not everybody in Safad was a Hassid [strictly observing Jew]. In my opinion this was not the execution of prisoners but the killing of Arab murderers. The rest were expelled in the direction of the Germak that same evening and to make them go fast, we shot at them.' The second case was reported to Milstein by a soldier named Yitzhak Golan, as he referred to thirty prisoners who were brought to interrogation in Har Kna'an: 'The men of the Intelligence Unit interrogated them and after the interrogation the question came up what to do with them. We were told to take them down to the Rosh Pina police station. On the way they attempted to escape so we shot at them. There was no alternative. The danger was that they might reach Safad and would tell there how few weapons and manpower we had. It is possible that they were killed chained. Next morning a platoon was sent to bury them.'"

Source: "Not Only Deir Yassin" (Guy Erlich, Ha'ir [Israeli newspaper], 6 May 1992).

"Mahmud Hassan Dukhi returned two days after the village had fallen to bring back his mother, who had insisted on staying, only to find her burnt body at his home. Hussain As'ad Khalil, who also returned, reported:

'... I saw the bodies of Abdullah Isma'il Muhammad, Ahmad Muhammad Khalil, and Ali Hussain Ali, who had been killed by Jewish soldiers as they tried to infiltrate into the village. ...'

Hussain As'ad Khalil's uncle and his wife, who stayed on after the fall of El Bassa ... described the Jewish occupation of the village:

"The day the village fell, Jewish soldiers ordered all those who remained in the village to gather in the church. Simultaneously, they took a few young people--including Salim Darwish and his sister, Illin -- outside the church and shot them dead. Soon after, they ordered us to bury them."

Source: Nazzal, The Palestinian Exodus, p. 58 (who adds that Hussain As'ad Khalil's uncle and his wife, who asked that their names not be used, gave him the names of five people killed in the process of occupation)

"Several months after the Israeli capture of Acre, Lieutenant Petite, a United Nations observer from France, visited Acre to investigate Arab charges that those Palestinians who remained under Israeli rule were being mistreated. ...

Lieutenant Petite noted that the Jews had murdered at least 100 Arab civilians in Acre. In particular the Israelis killed many residents of the new city who refused to move into the portion of the old city that was being used as an Arab ghetto. The Israelis considered the new city totally off-limits to Arabs.

The case of Mohammed Fayez Soufi was typical. He was forced to leave his home in the new part of town and was relocated in the portion of the old city of Acre that had not been demolished. When Mohammed and four of his friends went back to their former homes in the new city to get food, they were stopped by a gang of Israeli soldiers who put a pistol to each of their heads and forced them to drink cyanide. Mohammed faked swallowing the poison but his friends were not so lucky. After half an hour, three of the Arabs died and were tossed in the sea by the Israelis. Several days later, their bodies were washed up on the shore."

Source: Palumbo, Palestinian Catastrophe, p. 119, relying on Petite's reports, stored at United Nations Archives 13/3.3.1, box 13.

"On 20 May 1948 the Karmeli Brigade conquered the village Kabri. Dov Yirmiya, who was a company commander in the 21th battalion, tells: 'Kabri was conquered without a fight. Almost all inhabitants fled. One of the soldiers, Yehuda Reshef, who was together with his brother among the few rescapees from the Yehi'am convoy, got hold of a few youngsters who did not escape, probably seven, ordered them to fill up some ditches dug as an obstacle and then lined them up and fired at them with a machine gun. A few died but some of the wounded succeeded to escape. The battalion commander did not react. Receive was a brave fighter and as a rescapee from the Yehi'am convoy, enjoyed special status in the battalion. He advanced later to the grade of Brigadier General. He justified his action as an act of revenge.'

'When the action ended, we left, namely the battalion commander Dov Tschitchiss, Education Officer Tzadok Eshel, the driver and myself. We drove over fields to Nahariya. While driving we saw refugees escaping to the North. The battalion commander ordered the driver to stop and went with the driver and the Education Officer to chase an Arab who was escaping with a girl eight or nine years old. I heard shots and had scarcely the time to understand what happened. When they returned, the battalion commander declared: We killed them. I asked: The girl too? And he answered to me: No, no, we did not kill the girl.'"

Source: "Not Only Deir Yassin" (Guy Erlich, Ha'ir [Israeli newspaper], 6 May 1992)

"My husband and I left Kabri the day before it fell. ... At dawn [the next day], while my husband was preparing for his morning prayer, our friend Raja passed us and urged us to proceed, saying that we should run. ... It was not too long before we were met by the Jews. ... They took us and a few other villagers (...) in an armoured car back to the village. There a Jewish officer interrogated us and, putting a gun to my husband's neck, he said "You are from Kabri?" .... The Jews took away my husband, Ibrahim Dabajah, Hussain Hassan al-Khubaizah, Khalil al-Tamlawi, Uthman Iban As'ad Mahmud, and Raja. They left the rest of us.... An officer came to me and asked me not to cry. We slept in the village orchards that night. The next morning, Umm Hussain and I went to the village. ... I saw Umm Taha on the way to the village courtyard. She cried and said "You had better go see your dead husband." I found him. He was shot in the back of the head."

Source: Nazzal, Palestinian Exodus, p. 61-62 (quoting Aminah Muhammad Musa, interviewed at Burj al-Barajnih Camp, Beirut, Lebanon, February 24, 1973).

"Civilians ran for cover as an armoured unit of the Israeli 89th Commando Battalion fired its way into Lydda, an Arab town not far from Tel Aviv. At the head of the column in an armoured car he called 'The Terrible Tiger' rode Major Moshe Dayan, a relatively obscure professional soldier who had personally recruited the men of his battalion including a contingent of Stern Gang terrorists. Dayan was eager to prove that his method of lightening warfare would win quick results against the Arabs. For fourth-seven minutes on the evening of 11 July 1948, Dayan and his armoured forces terrorized both the defenders of Lydda and the neighbouring town Ramle, as well as their Arab civilian population.

Keith Wheller, a reporter for the Chicago Sun Times, witnessed the attack. In an article titled 'Blitz Tactics Won Lydda,' he wrote that as the Israeli vehicles surged through the town, 'practically everything in their way died.' [1] Not all the casualties were members of the Arab Legion that was defending the town. Kenneth Bilby of the New York Herald Tribune who entered Lydda in the company of an Israeli intelligence officer noticed 'the corpses of Arab men, women and even children strewn about in the wake of the ruthlessly brilliant charge.'[2]

The Israelis were not keen to take prisoners. Netiva Ben Yehuda, a young female member of the Palmach, recalled that a soldier 'went through the streets of Lydda with loudspeakers and promised everybody who would go inside a certain mosque that they would be safe.' Hundreds of Arabs entered the Dahmash Mosque believing that nothing would happen to them if they sat quietly with their hands on their head. But according to Ben Yehuda 'something did happen.'[3] In retaliation for a grenade attack after the surrender which killed several Israeli soldiers, over eighty Arab prisoners were machine-gunned to death. The bodies lay decomposing for ten days in the July heat. The Dahmash Mosque massacre terrorized the people of Lydda."

Footnotes:

1. Reprinted in Palestine Post, 13 July 1948.
2. Kenneth Bilby, New Star in the Near East, p. 43
3. Lynne Reid Banks, A Torn Country: An Oral History Of The Israeli War Of Independence, New York, Franklin Watts, 1982. Also Raja'i Buseilah, The Fall of Lydda 1948: Impressions and Reminiscences, Arab Studies Quarterly, Spring 1981, pp. 137-138.

Source: Palumbo, The Palestinian Catastrophe, pp. 126-127.

"After the entry of the [Arab Legion] detachment, the local Arab population rose in revolt, and, to suppress the revolt, orders were given to fire on any one seen in the streets. 'Yiftah' troops opened heavy fire on all passers-by and suppressed the revolt mercilessly in a few hours, going from house to house and firing at every moving target. According to the commander's report, 250 Arabs were killed in the fighting."

Source: An article by Israeli historian Arieh Vitzhaqi from the April 14, 1972, issue of the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot, translated in "From the Hebrew Press," Journal of Palestine Studies, vol. 1, no. 4 (summer 1972), p. 145. Also quoted in Hadawi, Bitter Harvest, p. 88.

"After Lydda gave up the fight, a group of stubborn Arab fighters barricaded themselves in the small mosque. The commander of the Palmach's 3d Battalion, Moshe Kalman, gave an order to fire a number of blasts towards the mosque. The soldiers who forced their way into the mosque were surprised to find no resistance. On the walls of the mosque they found the remains of the Arab fighters. A group of between twenty to fifty Arab inhabitants was brought to clean up the mosque and bury the remains. After they finished their work, they were also shot into the graves they dug."

Source: "Not Only Deir Yassin" (Guy Erlich, Ha'ir [Israeli newspaper], 6 May 1992).