Arab al-Mawasi massacre

32°49′59″N 35°28′55″E / 32.83306°N 35.48194°E / 32.83306; 35.48194 On November 2, 1948, two squads of Israeli Defense Forces soldiers captured an encampment of Bedouins at Khirbat al-Wa'ra al-Sawda' in the eastern Galilee. While some soldiers guarded the Arabs, others went to a nearby hilltop where the headless bodies of two Israeli soldiers were found. In retaliation, the Arabs' dwellings were destroyed and 15 or 16 adult males were shot, 14 of whom died.

Most of the victims were members of the 'Arab Al-Mawasi clan. Their bodies were buried in a cave adjacent to the place where they were killed. In the 1950s, the Israeli National Water Project was dug through the cave, and the Mawasi people took the bones to another cave. During the 1980s the bones were moved to a common grave in the Muslim cemetery in Eilabun.^[1]