1956 Rafah massacre
The Rafah massacre occurred on November 12, 1956, during Israel's occupation of the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Protectorate following the Suez Crisis. The town of Rafah, lying on the Egypt–Gaza border, had been one of two invasion points during the initial incursion by the Israel Defense Forces into the Strip on November 1.
Israel neither denied nor acknowledged any wrongdoing, while admitting that a number of refugees were killed. Refugees, it is also claimed, continued to resist the occupying army.
The Palestinian version maintains that all resistance had ceased when the killings took place. According to survivor testimonies, IDF soldiers rounded up male individuals over fifteen years of age throughout the Gaza Strip in an effort to root out members of the Palestinian fedayeen and the Palestinian Brigade of the Egyptian Army. Israel proclaimed that the civilian population would be held collectively responsible for any attacks on Israeli soldiers during the occupation, which lasted from 1 November 1956 to 7 March 1957. Dozens of summary executions took place of Palestinians who had been taken prisoner, and hundreds of civilians were killed as Israeli forces combed through areas like Khan Yunis, and others died in several separate incidents. Calculations of the total number of Palestinians killed by the IDF in this four-month period of Israeli rule vary between 930 and 1,200 people, out of a population of 330,000.
Background
The invasion of Rafah and the nearby Egyptian city of Arish began in the early hours of November 1, 1956. In his memoir The Sinai Campaign, Chief of Staff of the IDF Moshe Dayan wrote of the strategic importance of capturing Rafah, saying "If El Arish and Rafah were to fall to us, the Gaza Strip will be isolated and unable, alone, to hold out." Rafah's defenses collapsed within hours of Israeli arrival in the Strip, and by late morning Israeli soldiers were walking the streets of the town. Egyptian Army officers in the area removed their uniforms and fled into the interior of Rafah, attempting to blend in with the local populace. Fighting between Israeli forces and those of the Egyptians and local militants ceased on November 7.Events
Background – capturing the fedayeen
Israeli efforts to root out the fedayeen in Rafah's population on November 1 proved fruitless, save for one soldier, Ahmed Joudah. Joudah was taken from his home soon after the Israelis came to Rafah, driven out to the desert by a small group of soldiers, and killed. Rumors that he was tied to and pulled apart by two jeeps exist, but are apocryphal. As Israel took control of the Gaza Strip, it systematically sought to round up elements of the fedayin forces, estimated in some hundreds, assigning this priority over the estimated 4,000 Egyptian soldiers and Palestinian auxiliaries still trapped in the territory. On November 3 Israeli forces perpetrated the Khan Yunis massacre, wherein many Palestinian men were detained and executed, and all males between 15 and 60 years of age were ordered to present themselves to the authorities, detained and subject to interrogation.Mass detentions of Palestinians also occurred at Deir al-Balah on November 3, at Maghazi on November 4, and at Nuseirat on the following 6–7 November, and were taken either to Gaza or to the Israeli prison at Atlit, near Haifa, in contravention to the Geneva Conventions on removal of the inhabitants of an occupied land to the occupier's territory. In Gaza City itself, early on 10 November, loudspeakers ordered men to gather in their local squares for interrogations. As a result, in the Zeitoun neighbourhood several dozen young men between 17 and 25 were arrested, blindfolded and led away. Their fate is unknown but after the Israeli withdrawal, a gravesite was excavated and 36 bodies were recovered, and were identified by a Gazan court doctor as desaparecidos from Zeitoun.
Rounding up of men
The Rafah camp contained some 32,000 people. Between 6 and 6:30 AM on November 12, an announcement was made via loudspeaker for all men between the ages of 15 and 60 to gather at the local schoolhouse. Israeli troops encouraged the Arab men to quickly reach the school; they encouraged this by firing their rifles into the air and sporadically beating them with sticks. A handful of Palestinians were fired upon without warning on the way to the school. According to an UNRWA official, the Israeli loudspeaker summons was not heard throughout all of Rafah, and insufficient time was given for those summoned to reach the screening points, so that many refugees ran in order not to show up late. It appears soldiers panicked on observing the rush and opened fire on the crowd.As men were mustered at an UNWRA school in Al-Bahr street, Israeli troops positioned along the street would fire over their heads to make them hurry, but also shoot, to either wound or kill, stragglers, who they claimed to be fedayin. As a steady flow of military-age males gathered near the school, Israeli soldiers searched homes in the area for any remaining men who had chosen not to comply with the announcement, killing any that they found. As the stream of rounded up Arabs approached the school, Israeli soldiers are alleged to have taunted them, chanting "This one is a fedayee!" whilst aiming at them with their firearms. Throughout the long run to the school yard, sporadic shooting occurred, with several deaths occurring on the walk.
In the oral accounts collected years later, the procession eventually reached the wall which separated the school and street, the civilian men being made to line up against it. The group was then ordered to walk, hands against the wall, while being continuously shot at from fixed machine gun positions. The survivors of the latter shooting were made to walk through the school gate. As they entered the school, the male residents of Rafah were swung at by soldiers wielding heavy sticks and made to jump over a segment of barbed wire. Following this procedure, the group sat in the school yard.
Men continuously arrived in the school yard up until 11 AM. Eyewitnesses report being intimidated and humiliated by the soldiers. Those sitting in the courtyard were made to bow their heads to the ground whilst rifle fire flew one or two meters above them. Being kept put for an extended period of time, many were forced to relieve themselves in front of the whole group.
Outside the schoolyard, Israeli forces were actively searching the homes of the town, marking the walls of the searched homes with paint to indicate they had been searched. A separate group of Palestinian men, mainly older individuals, was being held on the outskirts of the town. Many of these men were released after questioning.