What is the Al Dawayima massacre in Palestine ?
The massacre in the village of al-Dawayima is regarded as one of the major atrocities of the 1948 war, and arguably one of the most horrific. What sets it apart from other massacres carried out by Zionist paramilitary groups is that the perpetrators were regular Israeli armed forces with operational planning capacity. Al-Dawayima was one of the largest villages in the Hebron area, and the subsequent massacre unfolded in three distinct stages: first in homes and alleyways, followed by the village mosque, and ultimately within a cave.
On 29 October, the Israeli military initiated the assault on the village. The soldiers deployed tanks, artillery, and machine guns, launching a simultaneous attack on the village from three different directions, subjecting it to intense firepower. The defenders of the village, numbering no more than 20 armed men, attempted to resist but were swiftly overwhelmed by the Israeli forces.
By midday, the Israeli forces had entered the village, encountering minimal resistance. Firing began at a distance of half a kilometer as the semi-circular arc of forces closed in. The Israeli troops fired indiscriminately for over an hour, during which time many villagers fled. Two groups of residents sought refuge, one in the mosque and the other in a nearby cave known as Iraq Al-Zagh, but the Israeli forces hunted them down and tragically shot them dead.
In the mosque, 60 bodies were discovered, primarily those of elderly men, while numerous corpses of men, women, and children lay strewn across the streets. Additionally, the entrance to the Iraq Al-Zagh cavern held the bodies of 80 men, women, and children.
According to an Israeli soldier who witnessed the massacre, between 80 and 100 men, women, and children were killed in the village of Dawayma on 29 October 1948 after Israeli forces entered the village. The command of the Egyptian garrison in Bethlehem reported that there were 500 victims, while the American consul in Jerusalem wrote in his report that based on the news that had reached him, between 500 and 1,000 Palestinians were killed in al-Dawayima. Other sources place the figure as high as 455 . Babies were killed by breaking their heads with sticks. Palestinian women were raped. Several villagers died when the houses in which they were taking shelter were intentionally blown up by Jewish soldiers.
Other villagers carried out forced labor for the soldiers for several days, including a mother with a newborn infant. They were then shot. After more than three requests, UN investigators were finally permitted to enter the village. The Belgian member of the investigating team Van Wassenhove noted that the houses in the village were still smoking and that some of the homes "gave a peculiar smell as if bones were burning."
Wassenhove was not permitted, however, to enter the homes. Investigators were also denied entry into the village mosque and key areas of the village. At one point during their investigation, the team happened upon the body of a Palestinian civilian. Israeli officials accompanying the team prevented further examination of the body. Following consultations with the investigating team, the American Consul in Jerusalem cabled Washington to report that the "Investigation by the UN indicates massacre occurred but observers are unable to determine number of persons involved."
According to the village's former Mukhtar, interviewed by the Israeli daily Hadashot,
"The people fled, and everyone they saw in the houses they shot and killed. They also killed the people in the streets. (…) At about half-past ten, the two tanks passed the Darawish Mosque. About 75 old people were there, who had come early for Friday prayers. They gathered in the mosque to pray.They were all killed."
The mukhtar also said that about 35 families were hiding in caves outside the village. When the Israeli soldiers discovered them,
"They told them to come out and get into line and start to walk.
And as they started to walk, they were shot by machine guns from two sides … We sent people there that night, who collected the bodies, put them into a cistern, and buried them."
The mukhtar later showed an Israeli journalist the cistern where the bodies had been buried. The cistern was partially excavated revealing the remains, including skulls, of three persons, one being a child. The bones were reburied and no further exhumation was done.