Lydda and Ramle during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war

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[edit] Israeli takeover

Lydda(Lod) and Ramle were two medium-sized towns located on the important Tel-Aviv—Jerusalem road. In the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the Israel Defense Forces captured them on July 12, 1948 and expelled almost all of the towns' residents, an estimated 40,000 Palestinians, at gunpoint.^[1]

The expulsion was carried out by the Yiftach and Kiryati brigades as part of Operation Danny, ordered by Israel's Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion.^[2]^[3]

[edit] Lydda confusion^{[citation needed]}

This term refers to the incident that happened after the capture of Lydda.^{[citation needed]}

The Israeli forces imposed a curfew, and the city remained calm until 11:30am, when some Arabs snipers in the village began to shoot at the Israeli forces^{[citation needed]}. The Israeli soldiers started shooting at and grenading houses that they suspected of holding snipers. The sound of the battle caused many of the scared Arab civilians to run out onto the street^{[citation needed]}, where they were shot by the Israelis.

By the time the shooting calmed down by 2pm, according to Yeruham Cohen, an intelligence officer at Operation Danny HQ, the result of the three hours of shooting was "some 250 dead ... and many wounded."

[edit] References

^ Expulsion of the Palestinians—Lydda and Ramleh in 1948 by Donald Neff, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, July/August 1994, Page 72
^ Morris, Benny, Righteous VIctims. 1999, p. 240.
^ Gilbert, Martin, Israel. 1998, p.218