Zionist gangs employed systematic massacres against the Palestinian people in order to drive them out of their homes lands and property during the Nakba (catastrophe) that befell them in 1948.
The massacres have been described as operations designed to instill fear by using any and all methods to empty the land of its citizens. Some people were killed; others were driven away; while others went missing.
A variety of methods were used to kill and displace people. Sometimes it was bombing sometimes shooting; on occasions the gangs went so far as to cut open the stomachs of pregnant women as did happen in the Deir Yasin massacre.
We have prepared this report to reveal some of the massacres committed by the Zionist gangs and how they occurred.
*A massacre took place in Haifa on the sixth of March 1937. On that day members of two Zionist terrorist organizations Alitzl and Lehi threw a bomb into the Haifa Market killing 18 Arab citizens and wounding about 38 others.
*A massacre took place in Jerusalem on December 31st 1937. A member of Alitzl threw a bomb into the vegetable market next to the Nablus Gate in Jerusalem causing the deaths of dozens of Arab citizens and injuring many more.
*Another massacre took place in Haifa on July 6th 1938 again in the Haifa Market. Members of Alitzl set off two car bombs killing 21 Arab citizens and injuring 52 others.
*Another massacre took place in Jerusalem on July 15th 1938 in front of a mosque in the city; a member of the Alitzl Gang threw hand grenades at worshippers streaming out of the mosque after a congregational prayer killing 10 citizens and wounding 3 others.
*Another massacre took place in Haifa on July 25th 1938 in the Arab market of the city; a car bomb placed by Alitzl exploded killing 35 Arab citizens and injuring 70.
*Another massacre took place there on July 26th 1938; a member of Alitzl threw a hand grenade into a Haifa market killing 47 Arabs.
*Another massacre took place in Jerusalem on August 26th 1938; a car bomb placed by Alitzl exploded in the Arab market. The blast killed 34 Arabs and wounded 35 others.
*Another massacre took place in Haifa on March 27th 1939; Alitzl set off two bombs in the city killing 27 Arabs and wounding 39 others.
*The Balad al-Shaykh Massacre took place on June 12th 1939. Balad al-Shaykh is a village to the south-east of the city of Haifa which the Zionist terrorist gang Haganah attacked kidnapping five of its residents and later killing them.
*Another massacre took place in Haifa on June 19th 1939; a Jew threw a grenade in one of the markets of the city killing 9 people and injuring 4 others.
*Another massacre took place in Haifa on June 20th 1947. Members of Alitzl and Lehi placed a bomb hidden in a vegetable cart in the Haifa Market. The explosion resulted in the death of 78 Arabs and the injury of 24 others.
*The Abbasiyyah massacre took place on December 13th 1947. The Irgun Gang launched an attack on the village of Abbasiyyah east of the city of Jaffa in which they fired upon a number of residents killing 9 Arabs and wounding 7 others.
*The Khassas massacre took place on December 13th 1947. It is a village in the Safad District north of Palestine. Palmach forces attacked Khassas in the northern part of the Hawlah Valley and killed ten people all of them women and children.
*The massacre of Bab al-Amood one of the gates of Jerusalem took place on December 29th 1947. 14 Arabs died and 27 were injured in an attack carried out by the Irgun Gang using a barrel of explosives. On the following day the same gang using the same method at the same location killed 11 Arabs and two Britons.
*Another massacre took place in Jerusalem on December 30th 1947. Members of the Irgun Gang tossed a bomb from a speeding car causing the deaths of 11 Arabs.
*The Shaykh Braik massacre took place near Haifa on December 30th 1947; a force of Zionist gangs attacked the village of Shaykh Braik killing 40 of its residents.
*A massacre took place at Balad al-Shaykh on December 31st 1947. This village located on Mount Carmel was attacked by a Palmach force on New Year’s Eve. The number of victims of the massacre according to Zionist sources was 60 people.
*The Hotel Semiramis Massacre took place on January 5th 1948. The hotel located in the Qutmoon neighborhood of Jerusalem was blown up by the Irgun Gang collapsing on the guests who happened to be there all of them Arabs; 19 were killed and more than 20 were wounded.
*Another massacre took place in Jerusalem on January 5th 1948 when members of the Irgun Gang threw a bomb at the Jaffa Gate of the city killing 18 Arabs and injuring 41 others.
*ٍThe Saraya al-Arabiyyah Massacre took place on January 8th 1948. It takes its name from a tall building located in front of the famous Jaffa Clock Tower that housed the local headquarters of the Arab National Committee. Zionist gangs set off a car bomb killing 70 Arabs and injuring dozens.
*The Old Saraya Massacre took place on January 1st 1948 in Jaffa. Members of the Irgun Gang detonated a car packed with explosives next to the Old Saraya Building destroying it and its surroundings and killing 30 Arabs.
*Another massacre took place on January 16th 1948 in Haifa; Zionist terrorists wearing British military uniforms used the pretext of carrying out an inspection to enter the Moroccan Building on Salahuddin Street where they placed a time bomb. When it exploded it destroyed the building and its surroundings killing 31 men women and children and wounding more than 60 others.
*The Yazur massacre took place on January 22nd 1948; groups of the Haganah attacked the people of the village of Yazur located about 5 kilometers to the south-east of the city of Jaffa killing 15 of its residents. Most of them were killed while in bed asleep.
*The Abbas Street Massacre took place in Haifa on January 28th 1948; Zionist terrorists rolled a barrel filled with explosives from the top of a slope down to Abbas Street destroying some houses and killing 20 Arab citizens. They injured about 50 others.
*The Tayra massacre took place on February 10th 1948; a group of Zionists stopped a number of Arab citizens returning to the village of Tayra Tulkarem. The Zionists opened fire on them killing seven and wounding five others.
*The Sa‘sa‘ Massacre took place on February 14th 1948; a force from the Third Palmach Battalion of the Haganah attacked Sa‘sa‘ Village and razed twenty houses on top of their owners despite the fact that the villagers had raised white flags. About 60 residents of the village most of them women and children were killed.
*The Peace Building Massacre took place on February 20th 1948 in Jerusalem; the Zionist Stern Gang stole a British Army vehicle packed it with explosives and then parked it in front of the Peace Building. The explosion killed 14 Arabs and wounded 26 others.
*The Husayniyyah Massacre took place on March 13th 1948; a gang from the Haganah attacked Husayniyyah Village demolishing some homes with explosives and killing more than 30 of its residents.
*A massacre took place on March 30th 1948 in the market of the town of Ramlah; the massacre was planned and carried out by Zionist terrorists killing 25 Arab citizens.
*The Cairo-Haifa Train Massacre took place in March 31st 1948. Terrorists from the Stern Gang planted a bomb on the Cairo-Haifa express train which blew up south of Haifa killing 40 people and wounding 60 others.
*Haifa-Jaffa Train Massacre also took place on March 31st 1948; the Haganah blew up the Haifa-Jaffa train while it was near Netanya killing 40 people.
*The Abu Kabir Massacre took place on March 31st 1948; armed groups from the Haganah mounted an attack on the Abu Kabir neighborhood in the city of Jaffa. They destroyed houses and killed those fleeing their homes in a bid for survival.
*The Deir Yasin massacre took place on April 9th 1948 in Deir Yasin a Palestinian Arab village about 6 kilometers to the west of Jerusalem. Members of the Irgun and Stern Gangs attacked residents of Deir Yasin and killed them without making any distinction between children the elderly and women. They mutilated the bodies of the victims and threw them in the village well. Most of the victims were women children and the elderly. The number of martyrs from this massacre was 254 people.
*The Qaluena Massacre took place on April 12th 1948. Qaluena is a Palestinian Arab village about 7 kilometers from Jerusalem. A force from the Palmach attacked it blowing up a number of houses and killing at least 14 of the residents.
*The Lujoon Massacre took place on April 13th 1948; the Palestinian Arab village of Lujoon in the district of Jenin was attacked by a group from the Haganah who killed 13 of its residents.
*The Naseruddin Massacre took place on April 13th 1948 in the village of Nasereddin 7 km to the south-west of the city of Tiberias. The Irgun and the Stern Gang sent a force wearing Arab clothing to the village; when they entered the Zionists opened fire on the population killing about 50 people. The total number of residents of the village at that time was 90 people.
*The Tiberias Massacre took place in Galilee on April 19th 1948; Zionist gangs blew up a house in the city of Tiberias killing 14 of its dwellers.
*Another massacre took place in Haifa on April 22nd 1948; Zionist invaders attacked the city after midnight from Hadar Carmel. They occupied homes streets and public buildings killed 50 Arabs and wounded 200 others. The Arabs were taken by surprise. They took their wives and children out to the port to await transport to the city of Acre. During the evacuation they were attacked by Zionist advance forces who killed 100 civilians and wounded another 200.
*The Ayn al-Zaytoon Massacre took place on May 4th 1948. ‘Ayn al-Zaytoon is a Palestinian Arab village in the district of Safad. Jewish author Natiba Ben-Yehuda in her book Behind the Distortions of the Massacre of ‘Ayn al-Zaytoon says: “On the 3rd or 4th of May 1948 about 70 prisoners were executed with their hands and feet bound.”
*The Safad massacre took place on May 13th 1948; the Haganah slaughtered about 70 youths in the city of Safad.
*The Abu Shawsha Massacre took place on May 14th 1948 in the Palestinian Arab village of Abu Shawsha located about five miles to the south-east of the city of Ramlah. Soldiers of the Zionist Givati Brigade surrounded the village from all sides and then showered it with bullets and mortars. They then entered the village shooting in all directions which resulted in the deaths of 60 people from the village.
*The Bayt Daras Massacre occurred on May 21st 1948 in north-east Gaza; a Zionist force beefed up with armored cars arrived at the village of Bayt Daras which they flanked to prevent possible access by rescue forces. They began a dense fire of mortars and heavy artillery. The people of the village felt distressed at their position but they decided to stand fast and defend their homes at any cost. They asked the women children and the elderly to leave the village in order to mitigate losses among the unarmed. The evacuees attempted their exit from the south side unaware that the village had been surrounded on all sides. No sooner had they reached the village outskirts than the Zionists met them with a hail of gunfire despite their being women children and unarmed old men. 260 people died as a result.
*The Tantoorah Massacre took place on May 22nd 1948. The Zionist Theodore Katz in research conducted for a master’s thesis at the University of Haifa concluded that what happened in Tantoorah was indeed a massacre on a massive scale. Katz related that the village was occupied by the 33rd battalion of the Kasandroni Brigade on the night of May 22nd 1948 who gained complete control of it. For several hours Zionist soldiers engaged in bloody pursuit through the streets; after which they concentrated fire on the residents. The cemetery in which the bodies of the 200 victims were buried was later turned into a parking lot of the usurped Dor Beach on the Mediterranean shore of south Haifa.
*Another massacre took place in Ramlah on June 1st 1948; Zionist officers gave the people of the city a choice between mass exodus and collective imprisonment. The offer was a ruse used to facilitate the murder of many of the city’s residents. The killers threw the bodies of the victims on the main road from Ramlah to Lod. Only 25 families were left in Ramlah after the massacre.
*The Jimzo Massacre took place near Ramlah on July 9th 1948; a force from the Yiftah Brigade of the Zionist army advanced splitting into two groups. One group moved south and occupied the village of Annabah and shortly after that the village of Jimzo. They drove the residents out shooting at them as they fled killing 10 people.
*The Lod Massacre took place on July 9th 1948; it was carried out by a commando unit led by Moshe Dayan. They stormed the city of Lod at night under a barrage of artillery and mortar fire. They shot at anything moving in the streets of the city. A large group of Arab civilians sought sanctuary in the Dihmish Mosque but as soon as the Zionists reached it they killed 176 civilians who had taken refuge there. That brought the overall number of victims of the Zionist massacre to 426 people.
*The Majdal Massacre took place on October 17th 1948; a battalion of the Lehi Organization under the command of Moshe Dayan attacked the village. They conducted a house-to-house search shooting people in their homes. Some families were entirely wiped out in the massacre which resulted in the deaths of 200 men women and children.
*The Duwaymah Massacre took place in the Hebron District on October 29th 1948; a battalion of the Lehi Organization under the command of Moshe Dayan attacked the village. They conducted a house-to-house search shooting people in their homes. Some families were entirely wiped out in the massacre which resulted in the deaths of 200 men women and children.
*The Aylabon Massacre took place on October 30th 1948. The Zionist army occupied the village rounded up the residents and killed 14 of its youths.
*The Hawlah massacre took place on October 30th 1948. The Kermeli unit of the Zionist army occupied Hawlah village gathered around 70 Palestinians still remaining in the village and opened fire on them.
*The Arab al-Mawasi Massacre occurred on November 2nd 1948 in Aylabon. The Arab al-Mawasi is a Palestinian Arab tribe distributed throughout the districts of Tiberias Acre and Safad. The Zionist occupation forces arrested 16 young men from Arab al-Mawasi on charges of cooperating with the Salvation Army and then shot them.
*The Massacre of Majd al-Karm occurred on November 5th 1948 in Acre; a force of the Zionist occupation army entered the village of Majd al-Karm on the pretext of searching for weapons. They gathered the residents in a courtyard; then executed eight of them.
*The Umm al-Shouf Massacre took place in November 30th 1948; a unit of Alitzl conducted an inspection of a convoy of refugees in the village of Umm al-Shouf and found a pistol and a rifle. They executed seven young men chosen at random.
*The Safsaf Massacre took place on November 30th 1948 in the Palestinian Arab village of Safsaf in the district of Safad. Zionist gangs entered the village and took 52 of its men; then shot and killed ten of them while the women pleaded with them to show mercy. There were three incidents of rape and four other girls were killed.
*The Jeze Massacre took place on December 31st 1948 in Ramlah District; Zionist gangs entered the village of Jeze killing 13 people including a woman and a nursing child from among the residents of the village.
In spite of all attempts at murder and displacement used by the Zionist occupation forces against the citizens at that time the Palestinian people stood firm in the face of these crimes.
In fact they have triumphed by refusing to tamely submit and by continuing their courageous and legitimate resistance in the face of the Zionist military juggernaut bringing it to a stalemate.
And to this day they curse Zionism and resist it with the strength at their disposal and the eyes of their children look forward to victory and freedom.
