dec 18, 1947 - The al-Khisas massacre

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The al-Khisas massacre occurred on December 18, 1947, in Mandatory Palestine near the Syrian border, carried out by Haganah militiamen, likely from the Palmach. The attack resulted in the deaths of twelve Arab villagers, including four children, in the village of al-Khisas.

The raid was a reprisal for an earlier incident where a passenger from a nearby kibbutz was shot and killed, believed by the Palmach commanders to be a political act, although it was actually a personal vendetta. Believing the attack originated from al-Khisas, they launched the raid under the pretext that lack of response would be seen as weakness by the Arabs and could invite further attacks. The Haganah High Command sanctioned the attack on the condition that only a few houses be burned and that only men be targeted.

During the attack, one unit used hand grenades on a house, killing two men and five children, and wounding five other men. Another unit targeted a house occupied by Syrian and Lebanese peasants, resulting in three deaths and three injuries. The villagers reportedly did not use firearms to defend themselves.

The massacre drew sharp criticism from the Jewish leadership at the time and led to a reprisal attack by Arab forces from Syria on the kibbutz Kfar Szold three weeks later, which resulted in heavy losses for the attackers. This incident escalated violence in the Upper Galilee, an area that had been relatively quiet, and was blamed for unnecessarily widening hostilities.

An interesting note from the operation was that a female member of the battalion refused to throw a grenade into a room after hearing a child cry, leading to a debate within the battalion about the appropriateness of women in front-line combat roles, with suggestions they be relegated to support roles instead.

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