The Qibya massacre occurred on the night between October 14th and October 15th, 1953, when Israeli soldiers under the command of Ariel Sharon attacked the village of Qibya, which was then under Jordanian sovereignty, and killed 69 Palestinians, many of them while hiding in their homes, which were blown up. 45 houses, one school, and a mosque were demolished.
The United Nations Security Council and the U. S. State Department condemned the operation, and U. S. aid to Israel was temporarily suspended. The Israeli army named it "Operation Shoshana" (Hebrew: מבצע שושנה, pronounced Mivtza' Shoshana) and it was carried out by two units: the Paratroopers and Unit 101 of the Special Forces.
The reasons for the massacre stem from a infiltration operation on October 12, 1953, by infiltrators from Jordan into a settlement. The infiltrators threw a bomb into the house of a family named Kanias, killing the mother and her two children (18 months, 4 years old), while the third child was injured, and the infiltrators fled. On October 14th, the Israel-Jordan Armistice Committee condemned the crime, and John Gloster, the commander of the Arab Legion, promised to apprehend the perpetrators.
On October 13th, David Ben-Gurion, along with his government (which did not include Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett at the time), decided to carry out a harsh retaliatory operation against the village of Qibya. The decision was passed directly to the operations and execution department, and the order was issued to the Central Military Command, which in turn ordered Unit 101 under the command of Major Ariel Sharon and Paratroopers Battalion 890. The order stated:
"To carry out demolition and inflict maximum casualties, with the aim of driving the village's residents out of their homes" (Israeli army archive 207/56/644).
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