- published: 09 Apr 2011
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The Deir Yassin massacre took place on April 9, 1948, when around 120 fighters from the Zionist paramilitary groups Irgun and Lehi attacked Deir Yassin near Jerusalem, a Palestinian Arab village of roughly 600 people. The assault occurred as Jewish militia sought to relieve the blockade of Jerusalem by Palestinian Arab forces during the civil war that preceded the end of British rule in Palestine. The residents resisted the attack, and the village fell only after fierce house-to-house fighting.
107 villagers were killed during and after the battle for the village, including women and children—some were shot, while others died when hand grenades were thrown into their homes. Several villagers were taken prisoner and may have been killed after being paraded through the streets of West Jerusalem, though accounts vary. Four of the attackers were killed, with around 35 injured. The killings were condemned by the leadership of the Haganah—the Jewish community's main paramilitary force—and by the area's two chief rabbis. The Jewish Agency for Israel sent Jordan's King Abdullah a letter of apology, which he rebuffed. Abdullah saw the Jewish Agency as responsible for the massacre, because he saw them as the head of the Jewish affairs in Palestine and thought they caused such incidents, and warned about "terrible consequences" if more incidents like that occurred.
Deir Yassin (Arabic: دير ياسين, Dayr Yāsīn) was a Palestinian Arab village of around 600 people near Jerusalem. It had declared its neutrality during the 1948 Palestine war between Arabs and Jews. The village was razed after a massacre of around 107 of its residents on April 9, 1948, by the paramilitary Jewish groups; the Irgun and Lehi.
The village buildings are today part of the Kfar Shaul Mental Health Center, an Israeli public psychiatric hospital.
The first part of the village's name Deir is defined as "monastery" in Arabic. According to Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi, this was a common occurrence in Palestinian village names especially those so close to Jerusalem. A large ruin that lay at the southwestern edge of Deir Yassin was known simply as "Deir".
Deir Yassin has been identified as one of the villages given as a fief to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the 12th century, and it has been suggested that a vaulted building in centre of the village could have been of Crusader or Mamluk origin.