Haifa Oil Refinery massacre

Haifa Oil Refinery massacre
Part of 1947-1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine
LocationHaifa
Date30 December 1947; 76 years ago (1947-12-30)
TargetJewish workers of Haifa Oil Refinery
Deaths39–41[a]
Injured49[b]
PerpetratorsMob of Palestinian refinery workers

The Haifa Oil Refinery massacre took place on 30 December 1947 in Mandatory Palestine, when 39–41 Jewish refinery workers were killed by their Arab coworkers in a mass lynching.[1][2][3][4][5]

The massacre was a response to an Irgun terrorist attack, where grenades were thrown into a crowd of about 100 day-labourers waiting at a bus stop outside the main gate of the then British-owned Haifa Oil Refinery. Six Arabs were killed and 42 were wounded.[6] Minutes after the Irgun attack, Arab refinery workers and others began attacking the Jewish refinery workers, resulting in 39–41 deaths and 49 injuries, before the British Army and Palestine Police units arrived to put an end to the violence.[7] This came to be known as the "Haifa Oil Refinery massacre". Haganah later retaliated by attacking two nearby Arab villages in what became known as the Balad al-Shaykh massacre, where between 60 and 70 Arabs were killed.


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  1. ^ Lockman, Zachary (10 July 1996). "The Descent Into Madness". Comrades and Enemies. University of California Press. pp. 183–184. ISBN 9780520204195.
  2. ^ Lockman 1996 - "Forty-one Jews had been killed and forty-nine wounded."
  3. ^ "39 Jews massacred at oil refinery". The Palestine Post. 31 December 1947. p. 1. Retrieved 22 March 2024.
  4. ^ "41 Jews Lynched At Haifa Oil Refinery After Irgun Bombs Killed Six Arabs" (PDF). Jewish Telegraph Agency. 31 December 1947.
  5. ^ Commission of enquiry report [into the Haifa Oil Refinery Massacre], Palestine Post, 20 February 1948.
  6. ^ Lockman 1996 – "Six people were killed and forty-two wounded."
  7. ^ Pappé 1999, p. 119.