Khan Yunis massacre

Khan Yunis massacre
Khan Yunis massacre
Part of the Suez Crisis
	Caravanserai of Khan Yunis, 1930s
Location	Khan Yunis, Gaza Strip
Date	3 November 1956
Target	Male Arab villagers; Suspected members of the Palestinian fedayeen
Attack type	Massacre
Deaths	275+ (per UNWRA report)
Perpetrators	Israel Defense Forces

The Khan Yunis massacre took place on 3 November 1956, perpetrated by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in the Palestinian town of Khan Yunis and the nearby refugee camp of the same name in the Gaza Strip during the Suez Crisis.

According to Benny Morris, during an IDF operation to reopen the Egyptian-blockaded Straits of Tiran, Israeli soldiers shot two hundred Palestinians in Khan Yunis and Rafah.^[1]^[2]^[3] According to Noam Chomsky's The Fateful Triangle, citing Donald Neff, 275 Palestinians were killed in a brutal house-to-house search for fedayeen (while a further 111 were reportedly killed in Rafah).^[4]^[5]

Israeli authorities say that IDF soldiers ran into local militants and a battle erupted.^[6]^[7]

^ ^a ^b Morris, Benny (1994). Israel's Border Wars, 1949-1956: Arab Infiltration, Israeli Retaliation, and the Countdown to the Suez War. Oxford University Press. p. 424. ISBN 978-0198278504. But many Fedayeen and an estimated 4,000 Egyptian and Palestinian regulars were trapped in the Strip, identified and rounded up by the IDF, GSS, and police. Dozens of these Fedayeen appear to have been summarily executed, without trial. Some were probably killed during two massacres by IDF troops soon after the occupation of the Strip. On 3 November, the day Khan Yunis was conquered, IDF troops shot dead hundreds of Palestinian refugees and local inhabitants in the town. One UN report speaks of 'some 135 local residents' and '140 refugees' killed as IDF troops moved through the town and its refugee camp 'searching for people in possession of arms'.
^ Benny Morris, Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, Random House 2011 p. 295: "In all Israeli troops killed about five hundred Palestinian civilians during and after the conquest of the Strip. About two hundred of these were killed in the course of massacres in Khan Yunis (on 3 November) and in Rafa (on 12 November)."
^ Yezid Sayigh, Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993, Oxford University Press, 1997, p. 65: "Dozens of fid'iyyun were summarily executed, and 275 Palestinian civilians were killed as Israeli troops swept Khan Yunis for fugitives and weapons on 3 November."
^ Noam Chomsky, The Fateful Triangle (1983), Pluto Press, 1999, p. 102.
^ Noam Chomsky, 'Chomsky’s ‘Fateful Triangle’: An Exchange,' New York Review of Books, 16 August 1984.
^ גרינפטר, יעל. "הטבח בחאן יונס". הארץ – via Haaretz.
^ "Graphic novel on IDF 'massacres' in Gaza set to hit bookstores". Haaretz.

[morris1994p424-1] Morris, Benny (1994). Israel's Border Wars, 1949-1956: Arab Infiltration, Israeli Retaliation, and the Countdown to the Suez War. Oxford University Press. p. 424. ISBN 978-0198278504. But many Fedayeen and an estimated 4,000 Egyptian and Palestinian regulars were trapped in the Strip, identified and rounded up by the IDF, GSS, and police. Dozens of these Fedayeen appear to have been summarily executed, without trial. Some were probably killed during two massacres by IDF troops soon after the occupation of the Strip. On 3 November, the day Khan Yunis was conquered, IDF troops shot dead hundreds of Palestinian refugees and local inhabitants in the town. One UN report speaks of 'some 135 local residents' and '140 refugees' killed as IDF troops moved through the town and its refugee camp 'searching for people in possession of arms'.

[2] Benny Morris, Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, Random House 2011 p. 295: "In all Israeli troops killed about five hundred Palestinian civilians during and after the conquest of the Strip. About two hundred of these were killed in the course of massacres in Khan Yunis (on 3 November) and in Rafa (on 12 November)."

[3] Yezid Sayigh, Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993, Oxford University Press, 1997, p. 65: "Dozens of fid'iyyun were summarily executed, and 275 Palestinian civilians were killed as Israeli troops swept Khan Yunis for fugitives and weapons on 3 November."

[4] Noam Chomsky, The Fateful Triangle (1983), Pluto Press, 1999, p. 102.

[5] Noam Chomsky, 'Chomsky’s ‘Fateful Triangle’: An Exchange,' New York Review of Books, 16 August 1984.

[6] גרינפטר, יעל. "הטבח בחאן יונס". הארץ – via Haaretz.

[ap-7] "Graphic novel on IDF 'massacres' in Gaza set to hit bookstores". Haaretz.

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