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'{{Infobox civilian attack | title = Balad al-Shaykh massacre | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | map = | map_size = | map_alt = | map_caption = | location = [[Balad al-Sheikh]] | target = Arab civilians | coordinates = | date = 31 December 1947 – 1 January 1948 | time = | timezone = | type = | fatalities = 12 | injuries = 30 | victim = | perps = [[Haganah]] | perp = | susperps = | susperp = | weapons = | numparts = | numpart = | dfens = | dfen = | footage = }} [[Balad al-Sheikh|Balad al-Shaykh]] was a [[Palestinian people|Palestinian Arab]] village, now part of the [[Israel]]i town of [[Nesher]] where a massacre was perpetrated on the night of December 31, 1947, to January 1, 1948. The [[Palmach]], an arm of the [[Haganah]], attacked the town while the residents were asleep, firing from the slopes of [[Mount Carmel]], in retaliation for the killing of 39<ref>[[Benny Morris]], ''1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War, Yale University Press, p.406.</ref> Jews during the [[Haifa Oil Refinery massacre]] the day before, 30 December 1947, which itself was triggered by the attack of the [[Zionism|Zionist]] paramilitary group, the [[Irgun]], who threw a number of grenades at a crowd of 100 [[Arab]] day laborers who had gathered outside the main gate of the British-owned Haifa Oil refinery looking for work, resulting in 6 deaths and 42 wounded.<ref>Pappe, 1999, p. 119.</ref> The Jewish agency condemned the Irgun for the "act of madness" that preceded the killing of Jewish workers at the Haifa oil refinery but at the same time authorized the raid on Balad al-Shaykh. Israeli historian [[Benny Morris]] writes: {{quote|The Haganah massively retaliated on the night of 31 December 1947 - 1 January 1948 raiding the villages of Balad al Sheikh and Hawassa, in which many of the refinery's workers lived. The raiding unit's orders were to 'kill maximum adult males'. The raiders penetrated to the center of Balad al Sheikh, fired into and blew up houses, and pulled out adult males, and shot them. According to the HGS, 'the penetrating units... were forced to deviate from the line agreed upon and in a few cases hit women and children' after being fired upon from inside houses. The Haganah suffered two dead and two injured. Haganah reports put Arab casualties variously at 'about 70 killed', and 21 killed ('including two women and five children') and 41 injured. (Morris, 2004, p. 101).}} Contemporary reports accessed via the British Archives at Kew, including File CO 537/3855, and CIPD reports that listed the killed and wounded from the incident, state five Arabs died during the attack, with another four succumbing to injuries over the next two days. Seven of the nine appear to be adult males, two were children. The British Police documented that five Arabs and three Jews were directly killed in the fighting: "29 Jews opened fire on Balad al-Shaykh from the hillside. The fire was returned by the Arabs and the resulting exchange of fire lasted for some thirty minutes. At 02.25 hours the attackers withdrew. During the engagement the following casualties were incurred: <ref>http://david-collier.com/myth-balad-al-shaykh-massacre/</ref> Amadi Hussan Wasaf age 14 (died at scene) Ahmad Rashid Mahmoud age 20 (died at scene) Zihour Rahid Akkoni age 11 (died at scene) Rashid Ali Mahmoud age 80 (died at scene) Hussein Zahour Yuni Arwan age 24 (died at scene) Zemen Abdul Hamid age 25 (succumbed to injuries) Sherif Mohammed Eissa age 30 (succumbed to injuries) Ali Abdul Hamad age 20 (succumbed to injuries) Mohammed Yusef Hasal age ? (succumbed to injuries) The British reports from the scene indicate the Palmach attack had been driven back (File WO 275/67). The original Haganah estimates were based on unconfirmed and conflicting reports. Morris had stated anywhere between twenty-one and sixty. The actual fatality count from the attack seems to be 12: nine Arabs, three Jews. <ref>http://david-collier.com/myth-balad-al-shaykh-massacre/</ref>. A contemporary report in ''The Times'' refers to 17 Arab dead, including one woman, and thirty-three injured, among them eight women and nine children. The Jewish casualties were three dead and two injured. During the same day twelve Jews and four Arabs were injured in several cases of bomb throwing and shooting in Haifa. ==See also== *[[Killings and massacres during the 1948 Palestine War]] ==References== {{reflist}} *[[Benny Morris|Morris, Benny]] (2003). ''The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|0-521-00967-7}} *'The British Withdrawal From Palestine: Possible Advance Of Date By Six Weeks, 17 Killed In Attack On Arab Village', ''The Times'', Friday, January 2, 1948; pg. 4; Issue 50958; col A. ==Bibliography== {{refbegin}} *{{citation |title=The Israel/Palestine Question |authorlink=Ilan Pappé |first=Ilan |last=Pappé |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-415-16947-9}} {{refend}} ==External links== *[http://www.mideastweb.org/refriots.htm Haifa Refinery Riots from MidEastWeb] {{Massacres against palestinians}} {{coord missing|Palestine}} [[Category:1948 Arab–Israeli War]] [[Category:1947 in Mandatory Palestine]] [[Category:1948 in Mandatory Palestine]] [[Category:Mass murder in 1947]] [[Category:Mass murder in 1948]] [[Category:History of Mandatory Palestine]] [[Category:Massacres in Mandatory Palestine]] [[Category:Massacres of men]] {{palestine-stub}}'