What Happened?

05 April 1948: A Haganah paramilitary force invaded the Palestinian Arab town of Sarafand al-Ammar, destroying a building, killing at least 16 Palestinian Arabs and wounding 20 more in the process. The Haganah believed the former Sarafand College, turned British Army staff college, was the “Southern Palestine headquarters” of a local resistance group, The Holy War Army, led by Sheikh Hassan Salameh, a Palestinian Arab commander. 

In a New York Times article published the next day, it highlights that “Haganah reports from Tel Aviv said the Jewish attackers had blown up the building by detonation charges. They claimed thirty-nine Arabs killed.” The building, consisting of 150 rooms, had been blown up with detonation charges for the express purpose of terrorising the villagers into leaving.

The historic Palestinian town no longer exists today, replaced by a supermarket.

References

Meltzer, Julian Louis. (1948). “Arabs Fire Shells at Zionist Village; Syrians, Iraqis Use Artillery for First Time in Palestine — Attackers Forced Back.” The New York Times, 6 Apr. 1948, p. 11. TimesMachine.

Pictorial and Evidence

More Massacres