1956 Rafah massacre

Rafah massacre
Part of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
Aftermath of the Suez Crisis
LocationRafah, Gaza Protectorate
Date12 November 1956
TargetMale Palestinian Arab villagers
Suspected members of the Palestinian fedayeen
Egyptian Army
Attack type
Massacre
Deaths≈111 Palestinians
PerpetratorsIsrael 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, circumstances surrounding the killing of 111 Palestinians in Rafah and the nearby refugee camp by the Israeli military are conflicted, 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]

  1. ^ a b "A thin black line". Haaretz. 11 February 2010. Retrieved 25 August 2013.
  2. ^ Henry Laurens, L'accomplissement des prophéties, vol.3 of La Question de Palestine, Fayard, Paris 2007 p.762 n.75.
  3. ^ Laurens, p.762 n.75.
  4. ^ Henry Laurens,L'accomplissement des prophéties, vol.3 of La Question de Palestine, Fayard, Paris 2007 pp.500-501.
  5. ^ "Rafah Has Long Suffered Under Brutal Israeli Assaults".