The Hadassah convoy massacre took place on April 13, 1948, when a convoy, escorted by
Haganah
Haganah ( , ) was the main Zionist political violence, Zionist paramilitary organization that operated for the Yishuv in the Mandatory Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine. It was founded in 1920 to defend the Yishuv's presence in the reg ...
militia, bringing medical and military supplies and personnel to
Hadassah Hospital
Hadassah Medical Center () is an Israeli medical organization established in 1934 that operates two university hospitals in Jerusalem (one in Ein Karem and one in Mount Scopus) as well as schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing, and pharmacology ...
on
Mount Scopus
Mount Scopus ( ', "Mount of the Watchmen/ Sentinels"; ', lit. "Mount Lookout", or ' "Mount of the Scene/Burial Site", or "Mount Syenite") is a mountain (elevation: above sea level) in northeast Jerusalem.
Between the 1948 Arab–Israeli ...
, Jerusalem, was ambushed by
Arab
Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world.
Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...
forces.
Seventy-eight
Jewish
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
doctors
Doctor, Doctors, The Doctor or The Doctors may refer to:
Titles and occupations
* Physician, a medical practitioner
* Doctor (title), an academic title for the holder of a doctoral-level degree
** Doctorate
** List of doctoral degrees awarded b ...
,
nurses
Nursing is a health care profession that "integrates the art and science of caring and focuses on the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and human functioning; prevention of illness and injury; facilitation of healing; and alle ...
, students, patients, faculty members and Haganah fighters, and one British soldier were killed in the attack, including twenty three women. Dozens of unidentified bodies, burned beyond recognition, were buried in a
mass grave
A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may Unidentified decedent, not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of exec ...
in the
Sanhedria Cemetery
Sanhedria Cemetery () is a 27-dunam (6.67-acre) Jewish burial ground in the Sanhedria neighborhood of Jerusalem, adjacent to the intersection of Levi Eshkol Boulevard, Shmuel HaNavi Street, and Bar-Ilan Street. Unlike the Mount of Olives and ...
.
The
Jewish Agency
The Jewish Agency for Israel (), formerly known as the Jewish Agency for Palestine, is the largest Jewish non-profit organization in the world. It was established in 1929 as the operative branch of the World Zionist Organization (WZO).
As an ...
claimed that the massacre was a gross violation of international humanitarian law, and demanded action be taken against a breach of the
Geneva Conventions
upright=1.15, The original document in single pages, 1864
The Geneva Conventions are international humanitarian laws consisting of four treaties and three additional protocols that establish international legal standards for humanitarian t ...
.
The Arabs claimed they had attacked a military formation, that all members of the convoy had engaged in combat, and that it had been impossible to distinguish combatants from civilians. An enquiry was conducted. Eventually an agreement was reached to separate military from humanitarian convoys.
It was undertaken as a retaliation after the
Deir Yassin massacre
The Deir Yassin massacre took place on April 9, 1948, when Zionist paramilitaries attacked the village of Deir Yassin near Jerusalem, then part of Mandatory Palestine, killing at least 107 Palestinian Arab villagers, including women and childr ...
five days earlier on 9 April, in which Zionist militant groups of
Irgun
The Irgun (), officially the National Military Organization in the Land of Israel, often abbreviated as Etzel or IZL (), was a Zionist paramilitary organization that operated in Mandatory Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of th ...
and
Lehi massacred at least 107 Arab villagers, including women and children.
Mount Scopus blockade
In 1948, following the
UN Partition Plan and anticipating
Israel's declaration of independence, Arab troops blocked access to Hadassah Hospital and the
Hebrew University
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. It is the second-ol ...
campus on
Mount Scopus
Mount Scopus ( ', "Mount of the Watchmen/ Sentinels"; ', lit. "Mount Lookout", or ' "Mount of the Scene/Burial Site", or "Mount Syenite") is a mountain (elevation: above sea level) in northeast Jerusalem.
Between the 1948 Arab–Israeli ...
,
Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
. The only access was via a narrow road, a mile and a half long passing through the Arab neighbourhood of
Sheikh Jarrah
Sheikh Jarrah (, ) is a predominantly Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem, north of the Old City, on the road to Mount Scopus. It received its name from the 13th-century tomb of Hussam al-Din al-Jarrahi, a physician of Saladin, located ...
,
[Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, ''O Jerusalem!'', 1972, pp. 284–285, Simon & Schuster, New York; ] which the Arabs had seeded with mines that could be detonated by electrical triggering at a distance.
The
Haganah
Haganah ( , ) was the main Zionist political violence, Zionist paramilitary organization that operated for the Yishuv in the Mandatory Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine. It was founded in 1920 to defend the Yishuv's presence in the reg ...
had used Mount Scopus as an outpost and a base for a raid on the village of
Wadi al-Joz
Wadi al-Joz (; ), also Wadi Joz, is a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem, located at the head of the Kidron Valley, north of the Old City of Jerusalem. The population of Wadi Joz is 13,000. It is located 750 meters above sea level in the ...
on February 26, as part of the struggle between Jewish and Arab militias over control of transportation routes in north Jerusalem. The area covered by the Hadassah hospital had great strategic importance, since it allowed one to take the Arab lines from their rear.
At 2:05 pm March 2, the operator at Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem received a phone call from an Arab caller who warned that the hospital would be blown up within 90 minutes, but there was no bomb.
[The Convoy](_blank)
, Hadassah.[Marlin Levin,''It Takes a Dream: The Story of Hadassah'', Gefen Publishing House, , 2002 p. 22]
At a press conference on March 17, the leader of the Arab forces in Jerusalem,
Abdul Kader Husseini, threatened that Hadassah Hospital and Hebrew University would be captured or destroyed. He went on record as declaring, "Since Jews have been attacking us and blowing up houses containing women and children from bases in Hadassah Hospital and Hebrew University, I have given orders to occupy or even demolish them."
Husseini was subsequently killed on April 8 while reconnoitering the Kastel to block relief convoys to Jerusalem. This factor, according to Marlin Levin, also influenced the decision to attack the convoy.
Revenge for this and retaliation for the
Deir Yassin Massacre
The Deir Yassin massacre took place on April 9, 1948, when Zionist paramilitaries attacked the village of Deir Yassin near Jerusalem, then part of Mandatory Palestine, killing at least 107 Palestinian Arab villagers, including women and childr ...
five days earlier on April 9, in which Zionist militant groups of
Irgun
The Irgun (), officially the National Military Organization in the Land of Israel, often abbreviated as Etzel or IZL (), was a Zionist paramilitary organization that operated in Mandatory Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of th ...
and
Lehi massacred at least 107 Arab Palestinian villages, including women and children,
Meron Benvenisti
Meron Benvenisti (; 21 April 193420 September 2020) was an Israeli political scientist who was deputy mayor of Jerusalem under Teddy Kollek from 1971 to 1978, during which he administered Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem and served as Jerusalem' ...
, ''Sacred Landscape: Buried History of the Holy Land Since 1948,''University of California Press, 2002 p.116. inspired two of Husseini's lieutenants, Mohammed Abdel Najar and Adil Abd Latif, to undertake the assault.
Dan Kurzman
Daniel Halperin Kurzman (27 March 1922, in San Francisco – 12 December 2010, in Manhattan), was an American journalist and writer of military history books. He studied at the University of California in Berkeley, served in the U.S. Army from 194 ...
, ''Genesis: The 1948 First Arab-Israeli War,''New American Library, 1970 pp. 188ff.
Arab sniper fire on vehicles moving along the access route had become a regular occurrence, and road mines had been laid. The
British Colonial Secretary and the
High Commissioner had given assurances that the relief convoys would be given British protection.
The
Red Cross
The organized International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 16million volunteering, volunteers, members, and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ...
had offered to put Mount Scopus under its flag on condition that the area be demilitarized, but the Hadassah leaders declined the proposal,
though a plan was prepared for an eventual evacuation if the authorities could not ensure the daily passage of three convoys. Unless this could be done, the only alternative was to accept the Red Cross offer. Jerusalem's 100,000 Jews depended on its services, wherever it was located.
Dr Yassky had found suitable quarters for the hospital in Jerusalem and was preparing to make arrangements for the transfer of the hospital there.
When food and supplies at the hospital begun to dwindle, a large convoy carrying doctors and supplies set out for the besieged hospital, marked by a "red shield", which should have guaranteed its neutrality.
[Jacques de Reynier, "À Jérusalem un drapeau flottait sur la ligne de feu", ''La Baconnière'', Neuchâtel 1950 p. 79:'Ce convoi était muni d'emblèmes du Bouclier Rouge et devait donc être considéré comme neutre.'] The British commander of Jerusalem assured the Jews that the road was safe. For the preceding month, a tacit truce had been in place and the passage of convoys had taken place without serious incident.
On April 11, the regional British commander gave assurances the road was safe, but noted that, after the Deir Yassin massacre, tensions were high.
According to
Henry Laurens
Henry Laurens (December 8, 1792) was an American Founding Father, merchant, slave trader, and rice planter from South Carolina who became a political leader during the Revolutionary War. A delegate to the Second Continental Congress, Laur ...
, an Australian officer tipped off the combatants of the Arab quarter through which the convoy had to pass, that the men of the Haganah had a mission to use the enclave to attack the Arab quarters and cut the route to Ramallah, and that, acting on this information, the Arabs then set up an ambush.
Attack
On April 13, the convoy, comprising ten vehicles (two ambulances, three buses of medical staff, and three logistical trucks, escorted by two Haganah armoured cars), set off for the hospital at 9.30 am.
They carried 105 passengers.
It was commanded by the Jerusalem Haganah Lieutenant Asher Rahav, who escorted convoys in an armoured Ford truck.
The line was ordered so that Rahav's vehicle headed the column, followed by the two ambulances, then the buses and the three supply trucks, with another escort car taking up the rear.
The
Sheikh Jarrah
Sheikh Jarrah (, ) is a predominantly Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem, north of the Old City, on the road to Mount Scopus. It received its name from the 13th-century tomb of Hussam al-Din al-Jarrahi, a physician of Saladin, located ...
Quarter provided an ideal position for an ambush in a small stretch of the road between Nashashibi Bend and the
Shepherd Hotel, where a small unit of twelve men from the British
Highland Light Infantry
The Highland Light Infantry (HLI) was a light infantry regiment of the British Army formed in 1881. It took part in the First World War, First and World War II, Second World Wars, until it was amalgamated with the Royal Scots Fusiliers in 1959 t ...
armed with a heavy machine gun and bazookas were stationed.
It stood some from the eventual site of the ambush.
The local British inspector, Robert J. Webb, head of the
Mea Shearim
Mea Shearim (, lit., "hundred gates"; contextually, "a hundred fold", Ashkenazi Hebrew and Yiddish pronunciation: Meye Shorim) is one of the oldest Ashkenazi neighborhoods in Jerusalem outside of the Old City. It is populated by Ashkenazi Hared ...
police station, usually travelled the road beforehand to ascertain if the route was safe. On this particular day, he said over the phone that the route was secure, but did not make his customary excursion to the Nashashibi bend where he could confirm this.
Rahav noticed several odd circumstances along the road: little traffic, closed shops, and Arabs in Iraqi uniform with
bandoliers. At approximately 9:45 am, a mine was electrically detonated five feet in front of Rahav's Ford, which contained a contingent of ten soldiers and two hitchhiking Haganah members.
The truck tilted into a ditch. At the same time, the convoy came under raking fire from
Arab
Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world.
Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...
forces. Five vehicles managed to back out and return to base, while the rear Haganah escort car inexplicably wheeled about and returned to Jerusalem.
Abdel Najar's ambush unit numbered around forty, and were later joined by men commanded by Mohammed Gharbieh, and many other fighters alerted to the battle.
British and
Palmach
The Palmach (Hebrew: , acronym for , ''Plugot Maḥatz'', "Strike Phalanges/Companies") was the elite combined strike forces and sayeret unit of the Haganah, the paramilitary organization of the Yishuv (Jewish community) during the period of th ...
forces were slow to come to the convoy's assistance.
[Hadassah marches on](_blank)
/ref> The Jewish liaison officer with the British army asked for permission to send in a Haganah relief force, which was denied on the grounds it might interfere with a cease-fire negotiation. British forces in the area did not intervene initially, the reason, according to Meron Benvenisti
Meron Benvenisti (; 21 April 193420 September 2020) was an Israeli political scientist who was deputy mayor of Jerusalem under Teddy Kollek from 1971 to 1978, during which he administered Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem and served as Jerusalem' ...
, being to "let the Arabs take revenge for Deir Yassin, so as to calm somewhat the rage of the Arab world." Marlin Levin suggests that the Arabs had an understanding whereby their operation would not be blocked if they refrained from firing on British units. One of the first men on the scene was Major Jack Churchill
John Malcolm Thorpe Fleming Churchill, (16 September 1906 – 8 March 1996) was a British Army officer. Nicknamed "Fighting Jack Churchill" and "Mad Jack", he fought in the Second World War with a basket-hilted Scottish broadsword, and a set ...
, who arrived on the scene at 11:15 am and banged on a bus, offering to evacuate members of the convoy in an APC. His offer was refused in the belief that the Haganah would come to their aid in an organized rescue. When no relief arrived, Churchill and his twelve men provided what cover fire they could against hundreds of Arabs.[Fighting Jack Churchill survived a wartime odyssey beyond compare](_blank)
, Robert Barr Smith, WWII History Magazine, July 2005. The Army unit tried to arrange a cease-fire between "11 and noon". Shortly after 1 pm, two British armoured cars, one occupied by the commander of British forces in Palestine, General Gordon MacMillan
General (United Kingdom), General Sir Gordon Holmes Alexander MacMillan of MacMillan and Knap, (7 January 1897 – 21 January 1986) was a Scottish professional soldier who rose to become a general in the British Army. As a young officer during ...
, approached the area from the Nablus road, observed the firefight, but refrained from risking British lives by intervening, preferring to let the Jews and Arabs fight it out themselves. As they passed Nashashibi bend, according to one testimony, they blocked the retreat, and Rahav ordered his men to fire at them in order to have them get out of the way. They left the scene at 2 pm, returning at 3 pm with heavier weapons. Negotiations were conducted between one of the leaders of the Arab ambush, Adil Latif, two Haganah men and a British officer, the Arabs proposing that all Jewish arms be surrendered, and all Jewish men capable of combat taken prisoner. The talks were suddenly interrupted when Latif was shot down.
At around 2 pm, the first of the buses was set on fire, and shortly after the second was enveloped in flames, both from Molotov cocktails. Only one man from each bus survived, Shalom Nissan and Nathan Sandowsky, the latter testifying that passing British convoys refused to render help despite their pleas. Arab shouts of "Minshan Deir Yassin" ("For Deir Yassin") could be heard. Dr. Chaim Yassky was mortally wounded by a ricocheting bullet in the white ambulance, which had the thickest armour of all, at around 2.30 pm. The Haganah made one further attempt to mount a rescue by towing out vehicles with an armoured car, but failed. Throughout the day, pleas had been made for British intervention without result. Brigadier Jones eventually received permission at 4 pm, reached the British outpost behind the convoy with three armoured cars, and their fire raked Arab forces, shooting fifteen Arabs, while bazookas were also employed as half-tracks were despatched to collect the survivors. At 5 pm, the Army "laid down smoke", and began retrieving the 28 survivors, by which time one bus was burnt out and a second on fire. Following the massacre
A massacre is an event of killing people who are not engaged in hostilities or are defenseless. It is generally used to describe a targeted killing of civilians Glossary of French words and expressions in English#En masse, en masse by an armed ...
, Churchill oversaw the evacuation of 700 patients and staff from the hospital.
Two Irgun
The Irgun (), officially the National Military Organization in the Land of Israel, often abbreviated as Etzel or IZL (), was a Zionist paramilitary organization that operated in Mandatory Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of th ...
militants injured at Deir Yassin were among the patients being transported in the convoy.
Casualties
In the attack, 79 Jews and one British soldier were killed by gunfire or were burnt when their vehicles were set on fire. Twenty-three were women. Among the dead were Dr. Chaim Yassky, director of the hospital, and Dr. Moshe Ben-David, slated to head the new medical school (which was eventually established by the Hebrew University
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. It is the second-ol ...
in the 1950s).
Most of the bodies were burned beyond recognition. The 31 victims that could be identified were buried individually. The remaining 47 Jews were purportedly buried in a mass grave in the Sanhedria Cemetery
Sanhedria Cemetery () is a 27-dunam (6.67-acre) Jewish burial ground in the Sanhedria neighborhood of Jerusalem, adjacent to the intersection of Levi Eshkol Boulevard, Shmuel HaNavi Street, and Bar-Ilan Street. Unlike the Mount of Olives and ...
. However, in the mid-1970s, Yehoshua Levanon, the son of one of the victims, discovered that a commission of inquiry convened at the time of the attack reported that only 25 were buried in the mass grave and 22 victims were missing. Going in search of the missing bodies, in 1993 he met an Arab who had participated in the ambush, who claimed that the attackers had buried stray body parts in a mass grave near the Lions' Gate
Lions' Gate (, ), also St Stephen's Gate, is one of the seven open Gates of the Old City of Jerusalem. It leads into the Muslim Quarter of the Old City.
History
The start of the traditional Christian observance of the last walk of Jesus from ...
. In 1996 Levinson petitioned the Israeli High Court to force the Defense Ministry to set up a genetic database to identify the 25 bodies buried in the Sanhedria cemetery. The mass grave was never opened. One British soldier also died in the attack, making the total of fatalities 79.
Aftermath
The day after the attack, several thousand Orthodox Jews
Orthodox Judaism is a collective term for the traditionalist branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as literally revealed by God on Mount Sinai and faithfully tr ...
demonstrated in the Jewish Quarter Jewish Quarter may refer to:
*Jewish quarter (diaspora), areas of many cities and towns traditionally inhabited by Jews
*Jewish Quarter (Jerusalem), one of the four traditional quarters of the Old City of Jerusalem
*Jewish Quarter (), a popular name ...
, demanding a "cease fire". In a statement they claimed that the demonstration was broken up by the Haganah
Haganah ( , ) was the main Zionist political violence, Zionist paramilitary organization that operated for the Yishuv in the Mandatory Palestine, British Mandate for Palestine. It was founded in 1920 to defend the Yishuv's presence in the reg ...
.
British soldier Jack Churchill
John Malcolm Thorpe Fleming Churchill, (16 September 1906 – 8 March 1996) was a British Army officer. Nicknamed "Fighting Jack Churchill" and "Mad Jack", he fought in the Second World War with a basket-hilted Scottish broadsword, and a set ...
coordinated the evacuation of 700 Jewish doctors, students and patients from the Hadassah hospital on the Hebrew University
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. It is the second-ol ...
campus on Mount Scopus
Mount Scopus ( ', "Mount of the Watchmen/ Sentinels"; ', lit. "Mount Lookout", or ' "Mount of the Scene/Burial Site", or "Mount Syenite") is a mountain (elevation: above sea level) in northeast Jerusalem.
Between the 1948 Arab–Israeli ...
in Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
.
Inquiry
On that same day, April 12, the Jewish Agency
The Jewish Agency for Israel (), formerly known as the Jewish Agency for Palestine, is the largest Jewish non-profit organization in the world. It was established in 1929 as the operative branch of the World Zionist Organization (WZO).
As an ...
requested that the Red Cross intervene over what they called a grave Arab violation of the conventions. An inquiry conducted among the Arabs, Jews and the British suggested the circumstances were more complex. The firefight had lasted several hours, indicating that the convoy was armed. The Arabs claimed that they had attacked the military formation by blowing up the armoured cars. They were unable to make a distinction between military and civilians because, they maintained, all the Jews, including the medical personnel, had taken part in the battle. The Jews claimed that they had the right to protect their medical convoys with troops. They admitted in the end, according to Jacques de Reynier, that they had been relieving the unit at the Hadassah hospital and furnishing the troop there with ammunition with the same convoys as those of the Red Shield. That practice was justified, they said, because the role of that troop was exclusively one of defending the hospital.
De Reynier repeated the position of the Red Cross
The organized International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 16million volunteering, volunteers, members, and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ...
that a mobile medical unit must move around unarmed and always separately from combat units. One had a choice between having recourse to armed protection or the protection of the Geneva Conventions
upright=1.15, The original document in single pages, 1864
The Geneva Conventions are international humanitarian laws consisting of four treaties and three additional protocols that establish international legal standards for humanitarian t ...
and the Red Cross flag. Both staging troops in a position of strategic importance and refurnishing them with supplies, de Reynier argued, had nothing to do with the hospital's functions. The Jewish Agency
The Jewish Agency for Israel (), formerly known as the Jewish Agency for Palestine, is the largest Jewish non-profit organization in the world. It was established in 1929 as the operative branch of the World Zionist Organization (WZO).
As an ...
had been prepared to have the troop stationed there withdrawn and its protection entrusted to the Red Cross but was overruled by the Haganah, which insisted that convoys to the hospital could not pass unless they went under military escort. De Reynier then volunteered to put this to the test with a practical proof that an unarmed convoy could pass.
The following day, without warning the Arabs, he led a small column of vehicles under a Red Cross flag while the following cars displayed the red shield. Their passage passed without a shot, and de Reynier argued that to be proof that the Arabs respected the Red Cross. The result was that leaders on both sides eventually ordered that military operations were to be separated from activities associated with medical assistance and the Red Cross.
The situation in the compound became grim, and the decision was made to evacuate the hospital in early May, leaving a staff of 200 to run a reduced 50 beds. The hospital was effectively closed by the end of May, as no supplies could reach it, though a small number of doctors and students remained.[Marlin Levin,''It Takes a Dream: The Story of Hadassah'', Gefen Publishing House, , 2002 p. 235.] In July, a deal was worked out where Mount Scopus became a United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...
area, with 84 Jewish policemen assigned to guard the now-shuttered hospital.
In the armistice agreement with Jordan
Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...
, signed on April 3, 1949, the hospital became a demilitarized
A demilitarized zone (DMZ or DZ) is an area in which treaties or agreements between states, military powers or contending groups forbid military installations, activities, or personnel. A DZ often lies along an established frontier or boundary ...
Israeli enclave
An enclave is a territory that is entirely surrounded by the territory of only one other state or entity. An enclave can be an independent territory or part of a larger one. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is so ...
, with a small adjacent no-man's-land (containing a World War I
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
Allied military cemetery under British supervision) and the rest of Mount Scopus and East Jerusalem
East Jerusalem (, ; , ) is the portion of Jerusalem that was Jordanian annexation of the West Bank, held by Jordan after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, as opposed to West Jerusalem, which was held by Israel. Captured and occupied in 1967, th ...
becoming Jordanian. The Israeli government
The Israeli system of government is based on parliamentary democracy. The Prime Minister of Israel is the head of government and leader of a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the government (also known as the cabinet). Legislat ...
and Hadassah donors then re-founded the hospital in Israeli West Jerusalem, with the original hospital staff ( Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital).
The Mount Scopus hospital resumed medical services only after the Six-Day War
The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...
.
On the 60th anniversary of the massacre, the city of Jerusalem named a street in honor of Dr. Yassky.
See also
* 1947-1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine
* List of massacres in Israel
This is a list of massacres that have occurred in Israel after the 1948 Palestine War.
*For massacres that have occurred in Roman Judea prior to the establishment of the Roman province of Syria Palæstina, see List of massacres in Roman Jud ...
* Killings and massacres during the 1948 Palestine War
During the 1948 Palestine war, massacres and acts of terror were conducted by and against both sides. A campaign of massacres and violence against the Arab population – such as occurred in the expulsions from Lydda and Ramle and the Fall o ...
* Convoy of 35
The Convoy of 35 (or the Lamed He, which stands for "thirty five" in Hebrew numerals), was a convoy of Haganah and Palmach fighters sent during the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine on a mission to reach by foot and resupply the blockad ...
References
Further reading
* Jacques de Reynier, ''A Jerusalem un drapeau flottait sur la ligne de feu''.
External links
Hadassah Medical Center website
*Re-enactment of the attack in the fil
House on the Hill
Guide to the Hadassah Archives on Long-term Deposit
at the American Jewish Historical Society
The American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS) was founded in 1892 with the mission to foster awareness and appreciation of American Jewish history and to serve as a national scholarly resource for research through the collection, preservation an ...
Guide to the Hadassah Medical Organization Records in the Hadassah Archives, 1918–2011 on Long-term Deposit
at the American Jewish Historical Society
The American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS) was founded in 1892 with the mission to foster awareness and appreciation of American Jewish history and to serve as a national scholarly resource for research through the collection, preservation an ...
{{Authority control
Jerusalem in the 1948 Palestine war
1948 massacres of Jews in Palestine or Israel
April 1948 in Asia
Ambushes of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
Sheikh Jarrah
Hadassah Women's Zionist Organization of America
1948 murders in Asia
Violations of medical neutrality during the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
Transport disasters in 1948
20th-century mass murder in Jerusalem
1948 mass shootings in Asia
Mass shootings in Jerusalem
1940s road incidents
Road incidents in Asia
Attacks on ambulances