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The Qibya massacre was a military action in October 1953 carried out by Israeli troops in a West Bank village.
The military action as Qibya was carried out by two Israeli units, a paratroop company and Unit 101 under the command of Ariel Sharon (who became Prime Minister of Israel in 2001). It led to the death of over 50 Palestinian Arabs and the demolition of most houses in Qibya , a village in the western West Bank, which was then under Jordanian control.
The attack was the climax of a number of border clashes; such clashes began almost immediately after the signing of the armistice in 1949. The State of Israel was confronted by a wave of Palestinian infiltrators from Jordan. The Jordanian Arab Legion made attempts to stop the infiltrations.
On October 12, 1953, a Jewish mother and her two children were killed by Jordanian infiltrators in the Israeli town of Yahud . The Israeli government decided to carry out a retaliatory strike against the village of Qibya in the West Bank. The order was given by Defense Minister Pinhas Lavon , who did not consult the cabinet and apparently misinformed Acting Prime Minister Moshe Sharett of the order. On October 13, at the meeting with the MAC (Mixed Armistice Commission), the Jordanian representative denounced the attack and promised Israel full cooperation in tracking down the murderers and asked Israel to refrain from retaliation. (The Iron Wall, Avi Shlaim, p.90-93). Sharett said later that "the Commander of the Jordan Legion , Glubb Pasha, had asked for police blood-hounds to cross over from Israel to track down the Yahud murderers" (Jerusalem Post, October 31, 1965).
The attack on Qibya took place in the evening of October 14, 1953. It began with an artillery barrage at the village until Israeli troops reached the outskirts of the village. LandmineA landmine is a type of mine which is placed on the ground and explodes when triggered by a vehicle or person. Landmines are used to secure disputed borders and to restrict enemy movement in times of war. Because of this, and also because not all types ars were laid out on roads to prevent Jordanian troops from joining the fight. When the village had been cleared of resistance, Israeli soldiers ordered the civilians to leave their homes and stated that they would be demolished; they then laid explosives around many of the houses and blew them up. The claim that villagers were given an opportunity to flee is contradicted by the fact that the Israeli units had an order to achieve maximum civilian casualties. At dawn the operation was considered completed and the Israeli troops returned home.
Forty five villagers' houses had been destroyed, as well as the mosqueMezquita (mosque) in Cordoba, Spain. A mosque is a place of worship for followers of the Islamic faith. Masjid is the Arabic term for a mosque. This term is used widely throughout the Islamic world, and the word masjid is widely preferred by many Muslims., the school and the water reservoir. Over 50 people were killed, two thirds of them women and children. The rest of the village population, around 2,700 in number, were able to flee. The Israeli government initially claimed that the killing was carried out by Jewish civilians living near the border, but later admitted that it was done by military forces.
The IDF claims that the plan was to ambush Arab LegionThe Arab Legion (Al-jaish Al'-arabi) was Transjordans and later on also Jordans regular army. It was formed in 1921 by Lieutenant Colonel Frederick Gerard Peake as a police force to keep order among Transjordanians tribes and to guard the important Jerusa forces in the area, by destroying some houses as a decoySee Decoy (TV series) for the 1957 television series of this name. A decoy is usually a person, device or event meant as a distraction to conceal what an individual or a group might be looking for. Decoys have been used for centuries most notably in game. The original orders issued by the Israeli General Staff were relatively confined in scale, implying "blowing up a number of houses ... and hitting the inhabitants". However, going down the command ladder, before they reached the units' commanders, the orders changed to demand "maximum killing" (Morris).
Ariel Sharon later wrote in his diary that he received orders to inflict heavy damage on the inhabitants of Qibya. "The orders were utterly clear: Qibya was to be an example for everyone". Sharon said that he thought the houses were empty and that the unit checked all houses before detonating the explosives. In his autobiography Warrior (1987) he wrote:
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