Massacres Against the Palestinian People: Part II

The Massacre at Abu Shousha (May 14, 1948)

The massacre in the village of Abu Shousha, not far from Deir Yasin, began at dawn. It resulted in fifty victims, including men and women, elderly and very young, many of whom had had their heads beaten with axes. The soldiers of the Zionists Jav'ati brigade, which carried out the massacre, opened fire indiscriminately on everything that moved. Not even the livestock survived the massacre.

The Massacre at Al-Lid (Lydda) (July 11, 1948)

This massacre was carried out by a commando unit led by Moshe Dayan, a defense and foreign minister of "Israel" later on. The unit stormed the city in the evening amidst a torrent of artillery shells and heavy gunfire directed at everything that moved in the city streets. The Arab citizens took refuge from the attack in the Dahmash Mosque. But no sooner had the Zionist terrorists reached the mosque then they killed 176 civilians who took refuge there, raising the victims of this massacre to 426 Palestinians.

Once the slaughter had come to an end, the unarmed civilians were led to the city's sport stadium, where the young men were detained. Then, the families were given a mere half-hour to leave the city for the area where the Jordanian Army was located. They were to go there on foot and without food or water, which caused the deaths of many women, children and elderly people.

The Massacre in the Village of Eilaboun (October 30, 1948)

The village was attacked on October 29, 1948 by "Israeli" forces, which clashed with a group of men from the Arab Rescue Army who were present in the village. The "Israeli" forces managed to enter the town at 5:00 a.m. on October 30, after the withdrawal of Rescue Army fighters. The inhabitants were ordered to gather in the city square, and were then fired at randomly from all four directions.


The Massacre in Ba'na and Deir al-Asad (October 31, 1948)

Zionist forces surrounded the two towns of Ba'nah and Deir al-Asad, and then overtook them on October 31, 1948 at 10:00 a.m. The forces commander ordered through loudspeakers the inhabitants of the two villages to gather on the plain area located between the two villages under guard by Zionist soldiers, then killed a group of young men in a manner described by a UN observer as "brutal murder, since it took place without provocation or even an expression of anger on the part of the people."

The Massacre at Qibya (October 14, 1953)

Aftet intensive artillery fire directed at the village's residents, units from the standing army of the Zionist entity surrounded Qibya with a force of approximately 600 soldiers, that stormed the village, firing in all directions.

While one unit of the Zionist infantrymen, led by Ariel Sharon, pursued villagers with fire, other Zionist units placed explosives around some houses and blew them up together with their residents. According to eyewitnesses who survived the massacre, Zionist soldiers stationed themselves outside these houses, and fired on anyone who tried to flee. The fatalities of the massacre reached 67, including men, women and children, while hundreds were injured.

The massacre was followed by tragic scenes that are difficult to forget. Among these was the sight of a women sitting on top of a pile of debris and looking forlornly into the sky. At the same time, one could see small hands and legs which were the remains of her six children, while her husband's bullet-mangled corpse lay on the road in front of her.

In his reportto the meeting of the International Security Council on October 27, 1953, General Von Pinika, chief UN observer at that time, stated, "The attack had been planned and was carried out by the regular "Israeli" forces."


The Massacre in the Town of Qalqiliya (October 10, 1956)

The Zionist army and a number of settlers attacked Qalqiliya, located along the green line which divided the Arab lands occupied in 1948 from the West Bank. Those who took part in the attack included an army detachment and an artillery batalion, along with ten fighter aircraft.

The Zionist army strafed the village with artillery fire before storming it, the death toll of the massacre exceeded 70.

The Massacre at Kafr Qasim (October 29, 1956)

During the 1956 war, the Zionist administration imposed a curfew on all Arab towns and villages, including the village of Kafr Qasim. The curfew was communicated late to the village and a number of children and elderly people took of to inform the young men, then working in the fields outside the village, about it. But the "Israeli" forces stationed outside the village, killed them all in cold blood, before reaching the village. The death toll was 49 civilians, including a number of children and elderly people.

The Massacre at Khan Yunus (November 3, 1956)

During the war of 1956, which resulted in the occupation of Gaza for sometime, the Zionist army carried out a massacre against the Palestinians in Khan Yunus refugee camp south of Gaza City, in which 250 Palestinians were killed.

Nine days later (on November 12, 1956), a unit of the Zionist army carried out another massacre in which more than 275 civilians were killed in the same camp. On the same day, the Zionist terrorists killed over hundred more Palestinians in the Rafah refugee camp.

To be continued...

Cited from book:

History of Palestine: A Methodical Study of the Palestinian Struggle
Dr. Mohsen Mohammed Saleh