Kfar Etzion Massacre - Background

Background

Kfar Etzion was a kibbutz founded in 1943, about 2 km east of the road between Jerusalem and Hebron. By the end of 1947, there were 163 adults and 50 children living there. Together with three nearby kibbutzim established 1945-1947, it formed Gush Etzion (the Etzion Bloc).

The United Nations partition plan for Palestine of November 29, 1947 placed the Etzion Bloc in the interior of the intended Arab state. The Haganah decided against the evacuation of the settlements for several reasons. The decision to hold out owed much to their strategic location as the only Jewish-held position on Jerusalem's southern approach from Hebron. Not only a principle was at stake; strategically, they were also a 'sharp thorn stuck in the heart of a purely Arab area';' they offered a potential obstruction of Arab lines of communication, and would relieve pressure on Jerusalem by forcing Arabs to expend considerable forces elsewhere. Throughout the winter hostilities intensified and several relief convoys from the Haganah in Jerusalem were attacked by Arab ambushes. In January, the children and some women were evacuated with British assistance. An emergency reinforcement convoy attempting to march to Gush Etzion under cover of darkness were discovered and killed by Palestinian Arab forces. Despite some emergency flights by Piper Cubs out of Tel Aviv onto an improvised airfield, adequate supplies were not getting in.

On March 27, land communication with the Yishuv was severed completely when the Nebi Daniel Convoy was ambushed on its return to Jerusalem. In the following months, Arab irregular forces continued small-scale attacks against the bloc, which the Haganah was able to effectively withstand. Etzion Bloc units had repeatedly attacked Arab Legion convoys and individual vehicles on the road between Jerusalem and Hebron on several occasions in April and May.

As the end of the British Mandate drew closer, the fighting in the region intensified. Although the Arab Legion was theoretically in Palestine under British command, they began to operate more and more independently. In March a Jewish convoy from Jerusalem intended to supply the Etzion Bloc was ambushed and 15 soldiers of the Haganah died before the remainder were extricated by the British. On April 12 and May 4, Etzion Bloc operatives ambushed Arab Legion units, and the incidents, according to a Hanagah analysis, tipped the Legion's policy towards the bloc from one of isolating it, to destroying it. On May the 4th, following the last ambush of a Legion convoy, a joint force of British, Arab Legion and irregular troops launched a major punitive attack on Kfar Etzion. The Haganah abandoned a few outposts but generally resisted, and the attack failed. A bloc counter-attack may have taken place the day after, but the failure of the Legion's assault led Hebronites and Legion units to plan a final attack and destroy the Etzion Bloc militarily. The final assault on Kfar Etzion began on May 12. Parts of two Arab Legion companies, assisted by hundreds of local irregulars, had a dozen armored cars and artillery, to which the Jewish defenders had no effective answer. The commander of Kfar Etzion requested from the Central Command in Jerusalem permission to evacuate the kibbutz, but was ordered to stay. Later in the day, the Arabs captured the Russian Orthodox monastery, which the Haganah used as a perimeter fortress for the Kfar Etzion area, killing twenty-four of its thirty-two defenders.

On May 13, an attack broke through Kfar Etzion's defences and reached the settlement's centre effectively cutting off the perimeter outposts from each other.