October 29, 1948: Twin Massacres at Safsaf and Al-Dawayima
The massacres at Safsaf and Al-Dawayima were part of a coordinated Israeli strategy to depopulate Palestinian villages, resulting in ethnic cleansing and lasting trauma.
On October 29, 1948, two Palestinian villages—Safsaf and Al-Dawayima—witnessed a level of violence that has scarred Palestinian history forever.
With the momentum of the ongoing Nakba in full swing, Israeli forces perpetrated massacres that left these villages as harrowing symbols of the brutality Palestinians had endured.
Occurring in different regions but on the same day, the massacres at Safsaf and Al-Dawayima reveal a coordinated strategy of violence aimed at depopulating Palestinian areas, ensuring Israel's territorial gains, and displacing thousands of Palestinians from their ancestral lands.
The Atrocity at Safsaf: Carnage in the North
In late October 1948, Israeli forces launched Operation Hiram, an offensive aimed at securing control over the Upper Galilee, an area still under Arab control.
The Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF), with members of the 7th Brigade and terrorist Palmach units leading the charge, targeted several Palestinian villages, including the small village of Safsaf.
Located near the town of Safad, Safsaf had already been touched by war, but what unfolded on October 29 would forever etch its name in infamy.
Upon entering Safsaf, Israeli forces carried out a systematic and brutal assault on the village’s civilian population, leaving behind a scene of devastation.
Between 50 and 70 unarmed civilians, consisting of men, women, and children, were rounded up and executed at close range.
However, the horror didn’t end with these killings. The violence escalated as women were subjected to rape before being murdered.
This form of violence served as a deliberate act of terror and dehumanization, further stripping the victims and their families of dignity before their lives were taken.
The bodies were then hastily buried in a mass grave, a calculated attempt to erase any memory of the generations who had called Safsaf home.
The massacre remains a symbol of the ruthless tactics employed during Israel's territorial expansion, illustrating the human cost of those ambitions.
Remnants of Safad, adjacent to Safsaf, also destroyed during the 1948 Nakba
The Horror of Al-Dawayima: Massacre in the South
While the village of Safsaf was targeted in the north, far to the south in the Hebron district, Al-Dawayima faced a similar fate.
This peaceful village, home to approximately 4,000 Palestinian farmers, was not part of Operation Hiram but fell victim to a separate military campaign designed to cement Israeli control over southern Palestine.
That same night, the 89th Battalion of the IOF, led by the war criminal S. Yizhar, stormed Al-Dawayima with devastating force.
The village, which had largely stayed out of the conflict, was unprepared for the onslaught that followed. The massacre at Al-Dawayima was nothing short of a bloodbath.
Eyewitness accounts, including the testimony of the village Mukhtar, Hassan Mahmoud Ihdeib, depict scenes of unspeakable violence in Al-Dawayima.
When Israeli armored cars stormed the village, soldiers fired indiscriminately at villagers, sparing no one in their path.
Many villagers attempted to flee. The elderly sought refuge in the mosque, only to be discovered among the bodies after the assault, with around sixty elderly victims among the dead, including Ihdeib’s father.
Those who managed to escape that day returned to find further devastation. Near the cave of Iraq al-Zagh, they encountered the bodies of around eighty-five more villagers, including men, women, and children.
Some of the victims of the al-Dawayima Massacre
Additional evidence from an Israeli soldier’s testimony, recorded by S. Kaplan, described how soldiers blockaded civilians in their homes and, in some cases, demolished the houses with people trapped inside.
The soldier recounted brutal acts, including orders for explosives engineers to detonate homes with elderly women inside after they were forcibly placed there.
Gruesome details, including the killing of a woman and her infant after she was made to serve the soldiers, reveal the depth of cruelty inflicted upon the village.
Soldiers reportedly boasted of killing and raping, reflecting a culture of impunity amid state-building efforts that devalued Palestinian lives
The massacre at Al-Dawayima, while receiving less international attention than others such as Deir Yassin, was no less brutal or significant.
Its devastation mirrored the violence seen throughout Palestine, where villages were systematically depopulated to secure Israeli control.
The bloodshed at Al-Dawayima remains one of the darkest moments of the 1948 war, leaving a legacy of trauma that endures to this day.
A Coordinated Strategy of Violence and Terror
The massacres at Safsaf and Al-Dawayima were not random acts of violence but rather part of a larger strategy employed by Israeli forces to reshape the demographic landscape of Palestine.
Both villages, though geographically distant and targeted under different military operations, experienced eerily similar, barbaric tactics.
As is the case with all Israeli operations in the region, the aim was to instill terror, depopulate Palestinian areas, and ensure that these communities could never return to their homes.
These atrocities, which occurred in tandem 76 years ago today, reflect the systematic use of violence to achieve Israel’s territorial ambitions. Civilians, particularly those least able to defend themselves, are often targeted as a means of expelling Palestinians from their ancestral lands.
The massacres were instrumental in creating the massive Palestinian refugee crisis, in which hundreds of thousands of people were forced into exile, never to return to their homes.
Both Safsaf and Al-Dawayima remain unpopulated by their original residents to this day, standing as silent witnesses to the violence that displaced them.
October 29 Massacres and the Ongoing Genocide
These early atrocities not only reshaped Palestinian geography but also became enduring symbols of the Nakba, a collective wound that has not healed.
The ongoing expansionist policies and repeated acts of violence against Palestinians echo these initial massacres, underscoring a sustained project of erasure and dispossession that has yet to cease.
The recent escalations have amplified the urgency for liberation, as new generations continue to inherit the scars of occupation, each more aware of the historical weight carried by their dispossessed lands.
The memories of Safsaf and Al-Dawayima serve as stark reminders of what is at stake: the survival of Palestinian life, culture, history, and dignity.
For Palestinians, the legacy of these massacres lives on through the continued displacement, murder, starvation, and the intergenerational trauma of entire communities that has persisted for 76 years.
Indeed, that trauma is sure to persist even beyond Palestine’s inevitable liberation, requiring mental rehabilitation in addition to rebuilding the region’s infrastructure.