Balad al-Shaykh massacre
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Balad al-Shaykh, was an Arab village in Palestine, now part of the Israeli town of Nesher. During the night of December 31 to January 1, 1947 the Palmach, an arm of the Haganah, attacked the town, firing from the slopes of Mount Carmel, in retribution for the killing of 41 Jews during the Haifa Oil Refinery massacre the day before.
Israeli historian Morris writes:
- The Haganah massively retaliated on the night of 31 December 1947 - 1 January 1948 raiding the villages of Balad al Sheikh and Hawassa, in which many of the refinery's workers lived. The raiding unit's orders were to 'kill maximum adult males'. The raiders penetrated to the centre of Balad al Sheikh, fired into and blew up houses, and pulled out adult males, and shot them. According to the HGS, 'the penetrating units... were forced to deviate from the line agreed upon and in a few cases hit women and children' after being fired upon from inside houses. The Haganah suffered two dead and two injured. Haganah reports put Arab casualties variously at 'about 70 killed', and 21 killed ('including two women and five children') and 41 injured. (Morris, 2004, p. 101).
A contemporary report in The Times refers to 17 Arab dead, including one woman, and thirty-three injured, among them eight women and nine children. The Jewish casualties were three dead and two injured.
During the same day twelve Jews and four Arabs were injured in several cases of bomb throwing and shooting in Haifa.
[edit] References
- Morris, Benny (2003). The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-00967-7
- 'The British Withdrawal From Palestine: Possible Advance Of Date By Six Weeks, 17 Killed In Attack On Arab Village', The Times, Friday, January 2, 1948; pg. 4; Issue 50958; col A.
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