Qibya massacre
1953 CE.
Shown on the map at 31.977°, 35.010°.
The Qibya massacre occurred during Operation Shoshana, an Israeli reprisal operation that occurred in October 1953, when IDF's Unit 101 led by future Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon attacked the village of Qibya in the West Bank, which was then under Jordanian control, and killed more than 69 Palestinian civilians, two-thirds of whom were women and children. Forty-five houses, a school, and a mosque were destroyed. Ariel Sharon wrote in his diary that "Qibya was to be an example for everyone," and that he ordered "maximal killing and damage to property". Post-operational reports speak of breaking into houses and clearing them with grenades and shooting. The attack followed cross-border raids from the West Bank. Israel framed the Qibya massacre as a response to the Yehud attack, in which an Israeli woman and her two children were killed. The massacre was condemned by the U.S. State Department, the UN Security Council, and by Jewish communities worldwide. The State Department described the raid as "shocking" and used the occasion to confirm publicly that economic aid to Israel had been suspended previously, for other non-compliance regarding the 1949 Armistice Agreements.
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