View source for Al-Khisas raid

{{Short description|Raid on Arab village, mandatory palestine}}
{{pp-extended|small=yes}}
{{Infobox civilian attack
| title            = Al-Khisas raid
| image            = Al_Khisas.jpg
| caption          = Remains of a house destroyed in the attack
| location         = [[Al-Khisas]], [[Mandatory Palestine]]
| date             = 18 December 1947
| partof           = the [[1947–1949 Palestine war]] and the [[Nakba]]
| coordinates      = {{coord|33|13|31|N|35|37|10|E|type:event_region:PS|display=inline,title}}
| target           = [[Palestinians|Palestinian Arabs]]
| type             = [[Arson]], [[Massacre]]
| fatalities       = 10-15 villagers, including 5 children
| perpetrators     = [[Palmach]], [[Haganah]]
}}

The '''al-Khisas raid''', also known as the '''al-Khisas massacre''', was an attack on the [[Palestinian]] village of [[al-Khisas]] carried out by the [[Palmach]] on December 18, 1947, during the [[1948 Palestine war]]. 10-15 Palestinian villagers were killed in the attack, including 5 children.

==Background==

The attack took place during the [[1947-1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine|civil war phase]] of the [[1948 Palestine war]] and was conducted as a reprisal for the killing of a Jewish man near Al-Khisas.{{efn|Reports differ as to the details of this killing, with [[Meron Benvenisti]] writing that "a horse-cart from an adjacent kibbutz was fired upon while traveling past al-Khisas, and one of the passengers was killed." [[Benny Morris]] writes that a Jewish man from kibbutz [[Ma'ayan Baruch]] was killed as revenge for the shooting of an Arab a few days prior. (Morris 2004) [[Saleh Abdel Jawad]] writes that "a settlement police car was attacked, which killed one man." (Jawad, 2007, ''Zionist Massacres: the Creation of the Palestinian Refugee Problem in the 1948 War'')}} Local [[Palmach]] commanders decided to launch a retaliatory attack on the village, arguing that "if there was no reaction to the murder, the Arabs would interpret this as a sign of weakness and an invitation to further attacks".<ref name="Benvenisti">{{cite book|last=Benvenisti|first=M.|author-link=Meron Benvenisti|title=Sacred Landscape: The Buried History of the Holy Land Since 1948|year=2000|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=9780520211544|page=[https://archive.org/details/sacredlandscapeb00benvrich/page/103 103]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/sacredlandscapeb00benvrich/page/103}}</ref> The [[Haganah]] High Command approved the action on condition that the attack be directed against "men only and they should burn [only] a few houses".<ref name="Benvenisti"/>

==The attack==
The massacre was carried out by the [[Palmach]]'s 3rd Battalion, which later became part of the [[Yiftach Brigade]].{{cn|date=November 2024}}

According to Haim Levenberg:
<blockquote>One unit attacked with hand-grenades a four-roomed house killing two men and five children, and wounding five other men. At the same time, another unit attacked a house in the village owned by Amir Al-Fa’ur of Syria, in which one Syrian and two Lebanese peasants were killed and another Lebanese and two local men were wounded. According to HQ British Troops in Palestine, the villagers did not use any firearms to defend themselves.<ref name="Levenberg Lewenberg 1993 p. 183">{{cite book | last1=Levenberg | first1=H. | last2=Lewenberg | first2=H. | title=Military Preparations of the Arab Community in Palestine, 1945-1948 | publisher=Frank Press | year=1993 | isbn=978-0-7146-3439-5 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sxvHK-Cq2RwC&pg=PA183 | access-date=2021-12-12 | page=183}}</ref></blockquote>

10-15 Palestinian villagers were killed in the attack, 5 of them children.{{refn|Pappé 2006, "Fifteen villagers, including five children, were killed in the attack."}}{{refn|Benny Morris, ''1948 and After'' (1990), "ten Arab civilians, including five children"}}

==Aftermath and reactions==

Following the attack a large number of al-Khisas' residents fled their homes, becoming a part of the [[1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight]].{{refn|Morris 2004, "Following the raid, a large part of Khisas’s population left their homes"}}

The events led to an escalation in violence that rapidly spread through the [[Upper Galilee]] region;<ref name="Benvenisti"/> the region had generally been quiet before the massacre, which was blamed for unnecessarily widening the hostilities.<ref>Abbasi, Mustafa. “The Battle for Safad in the War of 1948: A Revised Study.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 36, no. 1 (2004): 21–47. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3880136.</ref>

The Jewish leadership at the time sharply criticized the attack.<ref name="Benvenisti"/> Three weeks later, Arab forces crossed the Syrian border and carried out a reprisal attack on the kibbutz [[Kfar Szold]], but suffered heavy losses and were repulsed.<ref name="Benvenisti"/>

During the operation a female member of the battalion had refused to throw a grenade into a room in which she could hear a child crying; following the event the battalion's commander [[Moshe Kelman]] argued that women should not be used on front line duties but should be used as "cooks and service people."<ref>{{cite book|last=Kurzman|first=Don|year=1970|title=Genesis 1948. The First Arab-Israeli War.|publisher=New American Library (NAL)|location=New York|lccn=77-96925|pages=65}}</ref>

On the night of 5 June 1949, the remaining inhabitants of Khisas were forcibly expelled as part of the [[1949–1956 Palestinian expulsions]].<ref>[[Benny Morris]], ''1948 and After'' (1990), page 200</ref> Some time after the village was destroyed.<ref name="Benvenisti"/>

==See also==
*[[Killings and massacres during the 1948 Palestine war]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{notelist}}

{{Massacres against Palestinians}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Khisas raid, Al-}}
[[Category:1947 in Mandatory Palestine]]
[[Category:Massacres in 1947]]
[[Category:1947 fires]]
[[Category:Terrorist incidents in Asia in 1947]]
[[Category:December 1947 in Asia]]
[[Category:1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine]]
[[Category:Arson in the 1940s]]
[[Category:1940s fires in Asia]]
[[Category:Attacks on buildings and structures in the 1940s]]
[[Category:Massacres in Mandatory Palestine]]
[[Category:Massacres of Palestinians]]
[[Category:Israeli massacres of Palestinians]]
[[Category:Violence against men in Asia]]
[[Category:Haganah attacks]]
[[Category:Arson in Asia]]
[[Category:Raids of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict]]
[[Category:District of Safad]]
[[Category:Grenade attacks in Israel]]