Israeli soldiers massacred about 47 Palestinian villagers in the village of Kafr Qassem near the Jordanian border on October 29, 1956 (the only photographic evidence). The massacre was a deliberate policy of ethnic cleansing leading to the exile of about 800,000 Palestinians. It has been analyzed that this massacre was the political result of the nationalization of the Suez Canal by Egyptian President Nasser and the mobilization of armed forces.
On October 29, 1956, the eve of the Sinai campaign to invade Egypt, the Israeli army declared martial law without warning. It ordered a wartime curfew in all Palestinian villages near the Jordanian border, which applied from 5 p.m. to 6 a.m. the next day. Israeli border guards were informed that they would shoot anyone found outside their homes after 5:00 p.m., making no distinction between men, women, children, or anyone returning from outside the village. If they went out at night, Palestinians were to be shot in the street. Israeli military orders were notified to the Israeli border guards at 3:30 pm, before most Palestinians from the village were notified. Many Palestinian residents were working at the time. Villagers were beginning to arrive at their homes in Kafr Qassem from work and the fields. Israeli forces opened fire on the villagers of Kfar Qassem. About 47 Palestinians were massacred in about an hour after 5 p.m., including six women, 23 children and a boy between the ages of 3 and 17.
News of the massacre of the Kafr or Shem villagers was censored and the Israeli public was not informed until weeks later. Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion announced the results of a secret investigation: eleven border guards were eventually charged with crimes, and eight were convicted. The sentences of the imprisoned border guards have been reduced. None of the prisoners served more than three and a half years in prison. The commander of the Israeli army was symbolically fined only 10 plutos.
