Israeli military units stormed Palestinian houses in Qibya village, which is located 11 km northwest of Ramallah, amid heavy firing of machineguns and bombs before blowing the houses up on the heads of their residents. This is one of the Israeli massacres against the Palestinian people that took place on October 14th, 1953.

On that date, two Israeli military units led by the Zionist war criminal Ariel Sharon besieged the village and isolated it from the rest of the neighboring villages. Then they began bombing it with mortars before the soldiers stormed it and raided the houses. In this massacre, 67 Palestinian civilians were killed, dozens were wounded and dozens of houses were bombed and blown up.

Details of the massacre

On October 14, 1953, Israeli Special Operations Unit 101 led by Ariel Sharon and Unit 890 of the Paratroopers along with 600 soldiers besieged the village at 7:30 in the evening and began bombing it until the following morning at 4 a.m., forcing the Palestinian inhabitants to stay inside their homes.

The Israeli soldiers then started raiding one house after the other. Israeli army soldiers threw bombs inside homes, fired randomly through open doors and windows and shot at anyone who tried to flee.

At the time, the Israeli troops planted mines on various roads so that the village was completely isolated and infantry forces entered it while shooting in various directions. The inhabitants and the National Guard, led by Mahmoud Abdel Aziz, confronted the Israeli forces despite their small number and simple weapons. They fired back at the Israeli soldiers and they continued to resist until they ran out of ammunition and most of them were killed.

The commander of the National Guard managed to reach Deir Qaddis village where he contacted the Jordanian military leadership in Ramallah calling for help and ammunition. The Jordanian military moved from Budrus village to rescue the village but it was intercepted by the Israeli forces stationed in the roads and was unable to reach Qibya.

The Israeli forces then started to blew up houses with their inhabitants still inside. The number of village inhabitants was about 200 on the day of the massacre and the number of houses that were blown up was estimated at 56, in addition to a mosque, two schools and a water tank.

The events of this massacre took place after the Israeli authority escalated its raids against the Palestinian villages near the border after the signing of the armistice agreement with the Arab countries. 

Qibya village

Qibya village is located 11 kilometers to the northeast of Lod city and west of Ramallah. Its population is currently estimated at 1,635, in addition to about four thousand migrants from other cities and villages. It is located to the northeast of Jerusalem, about 32 km away from it, and has an area of about 16,000 dunums.

Painful scenes

The number of martyrs in this massacre of men, women and children reached 67 of the people of Qibya and dozens were wounded.

One of the most painful scenes was the scene of a woman helplessly sitting on a pile of rubble where parts of small hands and feet protrude from under the rubble. They are the remains of her six children. Her husband's body was torn into pieces from the hail of bullets fired at him and it was lying on the road facing her.

Many families were completely wiped out in this massacre including: Abu Zaid family of four members, the family of Mahmoud al-Masloul which consisted of six children, Mahmoud Ibrahim's wife and her three children, Hussein Abdel-Hadi, 64, and Latifa Hussein Abdel-Hadi, 12 years old.

Why Qibya?

The massacre happened in retaliation for infiltration that happened on October 12, 1953, from Jordan into a Jewish settlement, in which the Palestinian militants (fedayeen) threw a bomb inside the settlement killing two Israelis and wounding a third.

The next day, the Israeli Prime Minister at that time, David Ben-Gurion, and his government decided to launch a harsh reprisal operation against Qibya which the Palestinian infiltrators had passed through.

 

Source: The Palestinian Information Center