During the French campaign in Egypt and Syria, Napoleon Bonaparte ordered his troops to seize Jaffa to cement the recent French foothold within the Levant following the Siege of El Arish. After the city fell to the French troops, Napoleon had Abdallah Bey executed along with several thousand Muslim prisoners of war, reportedly in retaliation for the brutal killing of Napoleon's messengers to the city, who were tortured, castrated and decapitated, with their heads impaled on the city walls ahead of the battle by the Ottomans.