# Sa'sa' massacre

During the 1948 Palestine war, two massacres were perpetrated by Zionist forces in the Palestinian village of Sa'sa'. The first occurred on the night of 14-15 February 1948, when Palmach forces attacked the village killing approximately 60 people. The second massacre occurred on 30 October 1948 when the village was conquered by the Israeli military as part of Operation Hiram.

## Background

One history of 1948 asserts that the reason for the attack was to restore Jewish public confidence in their fighting forces following the deaths of all the members of a platoon attempting to take supplies to Kfar Etzion a month previously.
According to Efraim Karsh, on January 20-21 some 400 armed Arab fighters from 2nd Yarmuk Regiment of Arab Liberation Army based in Sa'sa' carried out attacks on isolated kibbutz Yechiam in western Galilee.
Moshe Kelman was deputy commander of the attack on Al-Khisas of 18 December 1947.

## 14-15 February massacre

In February 1948, Yigal Allon, commander of the Palmach in the north, ordered an attack on Sa'sa'. The order was given to Moshe Kelman, the deputy commander of Third Battalion. The order read: "You have to blow up twenty houses and kill as many warriors as possible". According to Ilan Pappé, "warriors" should be read as "villagers" to properly understand the order.
On February 15, 1948, a Palmach unit entered the village during the night and, without resistance, planted explosives against some of the houses. It was reported at the time that ten or more houses were totally or partially destroyed and 11 villagers were killed (5 of them small children). According to the official history of the Haganah, the village had been used as a base for Arab fighters. However, press reports at the time cited by Khalidi belie this, since the Palmach units met "without opposition" in the village. Moshe Kelman himself wrote that "We left behind 35 demolished houses and 60–80 dead bodies", and historians estimate 60 people were killed and 16-20 houses demolished.

## 30 October massacre

A second massacre occurred after the conquest of the village on 30 October during Operation Hiram. Historian Saleh Abdel Jawad writes that "many villagers" were killed. Those villagers who had not already fled were expelled. Northern Command OC Moshe Carmel later reported that he had seen evidence of killings, and an official investigation by Major Emanuel Yalan suggested that some villagers, including some with disabilities, may have been killed after the village was occupied. However, the relevant Israeli files remain closed to historians.
"The History of the Haganah" by Ben-Zion Dinur described the attack as "one of the most daring raids into enemy territory."

## Aftermath

Currently, there are few remains of the Palestinian village of Sa'sa', with the exception of the village mosque, which has now been converted into the kibbutz cultural center.
In 1992, the Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi described the remains of the village: "Some of the old olive trees remain, and a number of walls and houses still stand. Some of the houses are presently used by kibbutz Sasa; one of them has an arched entrance and arched windows. A large portion of the surrounding land is forested, the rest is cultivated by Israeli farmers."