| Rafah massacre | |
|---|---|
| Part of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict Aftermath of the Suez Crisis | |
| Location | Rafah, Gaza Protectorate |
| Date | 12 November 1956 |
| Target | Male Palestinian Arab villagers Suspected members of the Palestinian fedayeen Egyptian Army |
Attack type | Massacre |
| Deaths | ≈111 Palestinians |
| Perpetrators | Israel Defense Forces |
The Rafah massacre occurred on November 12, 1956, during Israel's occupation of the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Protectorate following the Suez Crisis. The town of Rafah, lying on the Egypt–Gaza border, had been one of two invasion points during the initial incursion by the Israel Defense Forces into the Strip on November 1.
As with the earlier Khan Yunis massacre, reporting of the circumstances and actions which resulted in the killing of 111 Palestinians in Rafah and the nearby refugee camp by the Israeli military are inconsistent and conflicting, with Israel neither denying nor acknowledging any wrongdoing,[1] while admitting that a number of refugees were killed. Refugees, it is also claimed, continued to resist the occupying army.[2]
The Palestinian version maintains that all resistance had ceased when the killings took place.[3] According to survivor testimonies, IDF soldiers rounded up male individuals over fifteen years of age throughout the Gaza Strip in an effort to root out members of the Palestinian fedayeen and the Palestinian Brigade of the Egyptian Army.[1] Israel proclaimed that the civilian population would be held collectively responsible for any attacks on Israeli soldiers during the occupation, which lasted from 1 November 1956 to 7 March 1957. Dozens of summary executions took place of Palestinians who had been taken prisoner, and hundreds of civilians were killed as Israeli forces combed through areas like Khan Yunis, and others died in several separate incidents. Calculations of the total number of Palestinians killed by the IDF in this four-month period of Israeli rule vary between 930 and 1,200 people, out of a population of 330,000.[4][5]