Massacres Committed in 1948

While the flight of the Palestinian population in 1948 was a complex event (as we explain elsewhere), all commentators agree that deliberate massacres of Palestinian civilians occurred and that they were instrumental in inducing Palestinians to flee their country. The following articles give detailed accounts of two such incidents.

• Matthew Hogan, "The 1948 Massacre at Deir Yassin Revisited," The Historian, Winter 2001
  "Fahimi Zeidan remembered hiding with her family when the house door was blasted open. The guerrillas took them outside. 'They shot my brother Mahmoud in our presence, and when my mother screamed and bent over him, they shot her too.' Then the children were put against the wall and fired upon."
• Ilan Pappe, "The Tantura Case in Israel: The Katz Research and Trial," Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 30, No. 3 (Spring, 2001), pp. 19-39
  "The people of Tantura were rounded up and led to the beach, where the men were separated from the women and children. The men were either seated or made to stand against a wall and were shot at the back of the head. Another 100 or so victims were dispatched in this phase."