Al Khisas Massacre:
18 December 1947 (Palestine) : Two carloads of Haganah terrorists drove through the village of Khisas (on the Lebanese Syrian border) firing machine guns and throwing grenades.
10 Arab civilians were killed in the raid.
Al-Khisas had been selected for a Haganah operation that was cancelled. Leaflets distributed in the village urged the population not to engage in combat:
“If the war will be taken to your place, it will cause massive expulsion of the villagers, with their wives and their children. Those of you who do not wish to come to such a fate, I will tell them: in this war there will be merciless killing, no compassion. If you are not participating in this war, you will not have to leave your houses and villages.” On the night of 18–19 December 1947, the Palmach conducted a raid on al-Khisas with orders calling for “hitting adult [or the adult] males” and “killing adult [or the adult] males in the palace of the Emir Faur”, which was thought to hide a man responsible for shooting a resident of Kibbutz Ma’ayan Baruch in revenge for the shooting of an Arab a few days earlier.
They blew up Faur’s house and a neighboring house, killing many occupants including women and children.According to Ben-Gurion, the raid was unauthorised. Local Jewish leaders and Arab affairs experts had tried to prevent the raid, but had been overridden by Yigal Allon. Afterwards the Political Department of the Jewish Agency criticized the attack and Yosef Sapir of the Defence Committee called for the punishment of those responsible, but no action was taken.Following the raid a large part of the residents left their homes.
The number of dead has been recorded as 10 (5 men, 1 woman and 4 children); however, the report from the Palmach commander recorded 12 dead (7 men, 1 woman and 4 children). David Ben-Gurion issued a denial that the raid had been authorised and issued a public apology, but it was later included by him in a list of successful operations. The Yishuv held a meeting on the 1–2 January to discuss the policy of reprisal operations, the outcome of which was a formulation of guidelines by the Jewish High Command for the conduct and execution of retaliatory raids.
The first wave of villagers left the al-Khisas on 11 May 1948. Others left on 25 May 1948. Another 55 villagers remained in their homes and maintained good relations with the Jewish settlements in the area, but were eventually evicted.During the night of 5–6 June 1949, the villagers were forced into trucks and transported to the village of ‘Akbara, south of Safad. Those expelled remained at ‘Akbara for 18 years until agreeing to resettlement in Wadi Hamam. On September 26, 1948, Kibbutz HaGoshrim was established on the village lands of al-Khisas. The kibbutz opened a hotel in the manor house of Emir Faour.
18 December 1947 (Palestine) : Two carloads of Haganah terrorists drove through the village of Khisas (on the Lebanese Syrian border) firing machine guns and throwing grenades.
10 Arab civilians were killed in the raid.
Al-Khisas had been selected for a Haganah operation that was cancelled. Leaflets distributed in the village urged the population not to engage in combat:
“If the war will be taken to your place, it will cause massive expulsion of the villagers, with their wives and their children. Those of you who do not wish to come to such a fate, I will tell them: in this war there will be merciless killing, no compassion. If you are not participating in this war, you will not have to leave your houses and villages.” On the night of 18–19 December 1947, the Palmach conducted a raid on al-Khisas with orders calling for “hitting adult [or the adult] males” and “killing adult [or the adult] males in the palace of the Emir Faur”, which was thought to hide a man responsible for shooting a resident of Kibbutz Ma’ayan Baruch in revenge for the shooting of an Arab a few days earlier.
They blew up Faur’s house and a neighboring house, killing many occupants including women and children.According to Ben-Gurion, the raid was unauthorised. Local Jewish leaders and Arab affairs experts had tried to prevent the raid, but had been overridden by Yigal Allon. Afterwards the Political Department of the Jewish Agency criticized the attack and Yosef Sapir of the Defence Committee called for the punishment of those responsible, but no action was taken.Following the raid a large part of the residents left their homes.
The number of dead has been recorded as 10 (5 men, 1 woman and 4 children); however, the report from the Palmach commander recorded 12 dead (7 men, 1 woman and 4 children). David Ben-Gurion issued a denial that the raid had been authorised and issued a public apology, but it was later included by him in a list of successful operations. The Yishuv held a meeting on the 1–2 January to discuss the policy of reprisal operations, the outcome of which was a formulation of guidelines by the Jewish High Command for the conduct and execution of retaliatory raids.
The first wave of villagers left the al-Khisas on 11 May 1948. Others left on 25 May 1948. Another 55 villagers remained in their homes and maintained good relations with the Jewish settlements in the area, but were eventually evicted.During the night of 5–6 June 1949, the villagers were forced into trucks and transported to the village of ‘Akbara, south of Safad. Those expelled remained at ‘Akbara for 18 years until agreeing to resettlement in Wadi Hamam. On September 26, 1948, Kibbutz HaGoshrim was established on the village lands of al-Khisas. The kibbutz opened a hotel in the manor house of Emir Faour.
