Qibya massacre

Operation Shoshana
Operation Shoshana
Part of the Palestinian Fedayeen insurgency and the Israeli reprisal operations
	Palestinian villagers returning to the village of Qibya after the Israeli massacre
	Qibya massacre (Israel)
Location	Qibya, West Bank
Coordinates	31°58′39″N 35°00′35″E / 31.97750°N 35.00972°E
Date	October 14, 1953
Target	Palestinian Arabs
Attack type	Mortar and dynamite attack
Deaths	69 Palestinian civilians
Perpetrators	Israel Defense Forces Unit 101; Ariel Sharon
Motive	Retaliation for the Yehud attack cited as motive by the Israeli government

The Qibya massacre occurred during Operation Shoshana, an Israeli reprisal operation that occurred in October 1953 when IDF's Unit 101 under Ariel Sharon attacked the village of Qibya in the West Bank, which was then under Jordanian occupation, and killed Palestinian civilians.

The attack followed cross-border raids from the Jordanian-occupied West Bank and Israeli reprisals, particularly the attack on Qibya, were a response to the Yehud attack in which an Israeli woman and her two children were killed in their home.^[1]^[2]

Israeli forces massacred more than sixty-nine Palestinian villagers,^[1] two thirds-of whom were women and children.^[3] Forty-five houses, a school, and a mosque were destroyed.^[4] Ariel Sharon wrote in his diary that "Qibya was to be an example for everyone," and that he ordered "maximal killing and damage to property". Post-operational reports speak of breaking into houses and clearing them with grenades and shooting.^[5]

The act was condemned by the U.S. State Department, the UN Security Council, and by Jewish communities worldwide.^[6] The State Department described the raid as "shocking" and used the occasion to confirm publicly that economic aid to Israel had been suspended previously, for other non-compliance regarding the 1949 Armistice Agreements.

^ ^a ^b Ganin, Zvi (2005), An Uneasy Relationship: American Jewish Leadership And Israel, 1948–1957, Syracuse University Press, p. 191, ISBN 9780815630517
^ Byman, Daniel (2011). A High Price: The Triumphs and Failures of Israeli Counterterrorism. Oxford University Press. p. 22. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
^ Shlaim, Avi (1999). The Iron Wall. Norton. p. 91. ISBN 0-393-04816-0.
^ Benny Morris, Israel's Border Wars, 1949–1956: Arab Infiltration, Israeli Retaliation and the Countdown to the Suez War, Oxford University Press, 1993, pp. 258–9.
^ Cite error: The named reference Bm1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ Avi Shlaim (2001). The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 91. ISBN 0-393-32112-6. The Qibya massacre unleashed against Israel a storm of international protest of unprecedented severity in the country's short history.

[uneasy-1] Ganin, Zvi (2005), An Uneasy Relationship: American Jewish Leadership And Israel, 1948–1957, Syracuse University Press, p. 191, ISBN 9780815630517

[Oxford_University_Press-2] Byman, Daniel (2011). A High Price: The Triumphs and Failures of Israeli Counterterrorism. Oxford University Press. p. 22. Retrieved 14 October 2014.

[autogenerated1-3] Shlaim, Avi (1999). The Iron Wall. Norton. p. 91. ISBN 0-393-04816-0.

[Benny_Morris_1993,_pp._258-9-4] Benny Morris, Israel's Border Wars, 1949–1956: Arab Infiltration, Israeli Retaliation and the Countdown to the Suez War, Oxford University Press, 1993, pp. 258–9.

[Bm1-5] Cite error: The named reference Bm1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[Shlaim-6] Avi Shlaim (2001). The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World. W. W. Norton & Company. p. 91. ISBN 0-393-32112-6. The Qibya massacre unleashed against Israel a storm of international protest of unprecedented severity in the country's short history.

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