On November 2, 1948, two squads of
Israeli Defense Forces
Israeli may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to the State of Israel
* Israelis, citizens or permanent residents of the State of Israel
* Modern Hebrew, a language
* ''Israeli'' (newspaper), published from 2006 to 2008
* Guni Israeli ...
soldiers captured an encampment of
Bedouin
The Bedouin, Beduin, or Bedu (; , singular ) are nomadic Arab tribes who have historically inhabited the desert regions in the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa, the Levant, and Mesopotamia. The Bedouin originated in the Syrian Desert and A ...
s at
Khirbat al-Wa'ra al-Sawda'
Khirbat al-Wa'ra al-Sawda' ( ar, خربة الوعرة السوداء) was a Palestinian Arab village in the Tiberias Subdistrict. In 1945, the village had a population of 1,870 Arabs.Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics. ''Village S ...
in the eastern
Galilee
Galilee (; he, הַגָּלִיל, hagGālīl; ar, الجليل, al-jalīl) is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon. Galilee traditionally refers to the mountainous part, divided into Upper Galilee (, ; , ) and Lower Galil ...
. While some soldiers guarded the Arabs, others went to a nearby hilltop where the headless bodies of two Israeli soldiers were found. In retaliation, the Arabs' dwellings were destroyed and 15 or 16 adult males were shot, 14 of whom died.
The victims' bodies were buried in a cave adjacent to the place where they were killed. In the 1950s, the Israeli National Water Project was dug through the cave, and the Mawassi people took the bones to another cave. During the 1980s the bones were moved to a common grave in the Muslim cemetery in
Eilabun
Eilabun ( ar, عيلبون ''Ailabun'', he, עַילַבּוּן, ) is an Arab Christian village located in the Beit Netofa Valley around south-west of Safed in northern Galilee between Nazareth and the Sea of Galilee. It ihad a population o ...
.
References
Sources
*Morris, Benny (2001). Revisiting the Palestinian Exodus of 1948. In ''The War for Palestine'', Eugene L. Rogan and Avi Shlaim (Eds.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 57 (citing Israel Defense Forces Archives 1096\1949\\65).
*Khalidi, Walid (ed.) (1992), ''All That Remains''. Washington: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1992.
*
See also
*
Killings and massacres during the 1948 Palestine war
Killings and massacres during the 1948 Palestine war resulted in the deaths of hundreds of civilians and unarmed soldiers.Morris 2008, pp. 404-06.
The historiography of the events has been revisited by the New Historians, starting in the 1980s a ...
External links
Welcome To al-Wa'ra al-Sawda', Khirbat
1948 massacres of Palestinians
November 1948 events in Asia
Violence against men in Asia
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