The
Kafr Qasim massacre took place in the
Israeli Arab village of
Kafr Qasim situated on the
Green Line, at that time, the
de facto border between
Israel and the Jordanian
West Bank on October 29, 1956. It was carried out by the
Israel Border Police (
Magav), who murdered
Arab civilians returning from work during a
curfew, imposed earlier in the day, on the eve of the Sinai war, of which they were unaware.
[1] In total 48 people died, of which 19 were men, 6 were women and 23 were children aged 8–17. Arab sources usually give the death toll as 49, as they include the unborn child of one of the women.
[2]
The border policemen who were involved in the shooting were brought to trial and found guilty and sentenced to prison terms, but all received pardons and were released in a year.
[3] The brigade commander was sentenced to pay the symbolic fine of 10 prutot (old Israeli cents).
[4] The Israeli court found that the command to kill civilians was “blatantly illegal”.
[5]
In December 2007, President of Israel
Shimon Peres formally apologised for the massacre.
The new curfew regulations were imposed in the absence of the laborers, who were at work and ignorant of the new rules.
[8] At 4.30 p.m., the
mukhtar (mayor) of Kafr Qasim was informed of the new time. He asked what would happen to the about 400 villagers working outside the village in the fields that were not aware of the new time. An officer assured him that they would be taken care of. When word of the curfew change was sent, most returned immediately, but others did not.
Between 5 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., in nine separate shooting incidents, the platoon led by Lt. Gabriel Dahan that was stationed in Kafr Qasim all together killed nineteen men, six women, ten teenage boys (age 14-17), six girls (age 12-15), and seven young boys (age 8-13), who did not make it home before curfew.
[9]One survivor, Jamal Farij, recalls arriving at the entrance to the village in a truck with 28 passengers:
'We talked to them. We asked if they wanted our identity cards. They didn't. Suddenly one of them said, 'Cut them down' - and they opened fire on us like a flood.'
[10]
One Israeli soldier, Shalom Ofer, later admitted: 'We acted like Germans, automatically, we didn't think', but never expressed remorse or regret for his actions.
[11]
The many injured were left unattended, and could not be succoured by their families because of the 24-hour curfew. The dead were collected and buried in a mass grave by Arabs, taken for that purpose, from the nearby village of
Jaljuliya. When the curfew ended, the wounded were picked up from the streets and trucked to hospitals.
Kafr Qasim massacre - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Israel does not target civilians
