Tantura massacre | |
---|---|
Part of the 1948 Palestine war and the Nakba | |
Location | Tantura, Palestine |
Date | 22 May 1948 |
Target | Palestinian villagers |
Deaths | Unknown. Estimates range from "dozens" to 200+ |
Perpetrators | Haganah, Alexandroni Brigade |
The Tantura massacre took place on the night of 22/23 May 1948 during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, when Palestinian villagers were massacred by the Alexandroni Brigade of the Haganah. The massacre occurred after the surrender of the village of Tantura, a small village of roughly 1,500 people located near Haifa. The number of those killed is unknown, with estimates ranging from "dozens" to 200+.[1][2][3][a][b][c]
Oral testimonies by surviving Palestinians were met by skepticism. A corroborative 1998 thesis by an Israeli Haifa University graduate Theodore Katz, who interviewed survivors, was also met with denial. In a 2022 Israeli documentary film called Tantura, several Israeli veterans interviewed said they had witnessed a massacre at Tantura after the village had surrendered. In 2023, Forensic Architecture published its commissioned investigation of the area and concluded that there were three potential gravesites in the area of the Tel Dor beach that were connected to a massacre.
After the massacre, most of the village was destroyed and its residents were expelled, with many of the women and children being transported to Furaydis. The Israeli kibbutz and beach resort of Nahsholim was established on the site of the depopulated village. The victims were buried in mass graves, one of them presently beneath a parking lot for the nearby Tel Dor beach.
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