responsible for the Coastal plain,) on 23 May 1948. Between 70 and 200 people, mainly men, were killed in T ant u¯ra during and following its conquest. Yig’al Fried was the commander of one  of  the  Jewish  units  that  fought  in  the  area.⁴³  When  we went  for  a  car-ride  along  the Carmel Coast to discuss the 1948 events, Yig’al noted that he knew of no such massacre in T ant u¯ra but that there was “a tendency” to shoot at men of fighting age. He later corrected himself and said that one would shoot only at “the men who carried guns that were of fighting age.” Although the consequences of T ant u¯ra’s conquest did not become publicly known until recently⁴⁴ and a public symbol such as the Di¯r Ya¯si¯n massacre, they were nevertheless known in the region.⁴⁵ Shafi¯q, who stayed with his family in Ma¯qu¯ra near Ijzim after the war, heard from his relative of the events in T ant u ¯ra.^H Shafi¯q: In T ant u ¯ra the men were killed. The men were taken out and killed. And how do I know this? My father’s uncle came after 1948, through. . . [it seems Shafi¯q doesn’t want to say that his uncle came “illegally”]. He came to the village, to my father, to visit my father. He was from T ant u ¯ra. My father’s uncle told me that when the Jews entered T ant u ¯ra, one of the soldiers made him lie down, took a knife, and was about to slaughter him. Then, one of the Jews from Zikhron recognized him and said to him [to the soldier with the knife]: “Let him go”. “And then he saved me,” he said. And he was taken as a prisoner. Put in prison. And then they expelled him to Jordan. And he said to me: “when we were standing there, with bound hands, all the men of T ant u ¯ra. . .. They killed five and then called for another five. And then when they finished those. . .. And I counted one hundred and fifty men who were killed in this fashion. Five buried five.” Within the locality the story of the massacre traveled fast and intensified the Jizma¯wi¯ fear of   falling   into   Jewish   hands.   By   July,   Ijzim’s   men   were   extremely   worried   and predominantly  trying  to  defend  the  village  from  a  series  of  attacks.  Following  the  road incident on 6 July, an IDF “retaliation attack” took place on 8 July but the soldiers failed to reach the villages.⁴⁶ Airplanes were extensively used by the IDF during the last two weeks. The airplanes were usually not fighters or bombers, but cargo and liaison planes (such as Dakotas and Pipers) from which bombs were dropped by hand. These airplane raids were something completely new to the villagers, noted Abu Na’i¯m:^H The Jews began to bomb with airplanes. I remember the first time there was a bomb. They were Pipers. It was dusk hour. The first to be killed by the first bomb was my aunt’s husband, my mom’s sister. And we thought that if you escaped under a tree the plane would not see us. The air bombings lasted for two weeks. On the 12th of July at 21:00 planes dropped 420 kg of explosives plus incendiary bombs on Ijzim. On the 17th, Ijzim was bombed again. On the 19th Ijzim  was bombed twice.⁴⁷  On the 20th  the air-raids preceded  an infantry raid: “. . .. From 19:15 till 20:10 [20.7] three flying fortresses and one Dakota bombed ’Ein Ghaza¯l, Ijzim and Jaba’. . . all together four tons. . ., the attack of the military police began at 23:00.”⁴⁸ This raid failed to capture the village and another one was organized a couple of days later, on the 24th at night, this time with a larger force.⁴⁹  The village fell to this attack, which was preceded  by  an  air  raid  as  well.⁵⁰  On  the  25th  at  night,  Ijzim  was  bombed  again.  The instructions to the pilot were as follows: “Enemy forces are concentrated on the hill dome half way between Ijzim and Jaba’ and in the village of Ijzim. . ., Bomb the hilltop between Jaba’ and Ijzim with 800 kg. and incendiary bombs between 01:00–02:00 and 08:00 with the same load.”⁵¹ The hilltop was probably empty when it was bombed on the next day as well.⁵² THE FALL OF THE VILLAGE AND THE INHABITANTS’ FLIGHT The second truce began on 19 July, but as we see, the Jews did not respect the agreement in the case of Ijzim–Jaba’—’Ein Ghaza¯l. The final Jewish attack on Ijzim, under the guise of a police operation, began on Saturday night (24 July) and continued for two days and nights. On the second evening and night, between the 25 and 26 of July, the Arab fighters yielded and EFRAT BEN-ZE’EV 22