The ZOA study brings to light, for the first time, a number of important documents that have never previously appeared in English, which demonstrate that, in fact, no massacre took place in Deir Yassin. Deir Yassin was strategically located, overlooking the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway. Arab military forces located in Deir Yassin and adjacent villages regularly attacked Jewish traffic on that highway, effectively cutting off western Jerusalem from much of the rest of the country. The Jewish fighters who sought to conquer Deir Yassin in April 1948 encountered hours of heavy gunfire from the well-armed villagers and Arab soldiers based there. Large amounts of weapons and ammunition were found in the village by the Jewish forces.
Eyewitnesses say there was no massacre.
Interviews with participants in the battle, and documents located in Israeli archives, reveal that there is no evidence any massacre took place. The Jewish fighters have all consistently denied a massacre. Arab accounts of the battle are biased, contradictory, and unreliable. A Red Cross official who visited Deir Yassin two days after the battle had no way of knowing how the Arabs died and no basis on which to claim there was a massacre. Arab researchers found far fewer dead than claimed.