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District of Safad
Ethnically cleansed days ago |
العربية Google Earth |
Gallery (71) |
Statistic & Fact | Value | ||||||||||||||||
Occupation Date | October 29, 1948 | ||||||||||||||||
Distance From District | 7 (km) North West of Safad | ||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 750 (meters) | ||||||||||||||||
Before & After Nakba, Click Map For Details![]() |
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Pre-Nakba Aerial View![]() |
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Map Location | See location #50 on the map View from satellite |
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Military Operation | Operation Hiram | ||||||||||||||||
Defenders | Local militia & Arab Liberation Army | ||||||||||||||||
Acts of Terror | The massacre of 70 blind folded men, also three cases of rape, including the rape of 14 year old girl. The girl was raped while getting water for the soldiers | ||||||||||||||||
Exodus Cause | Expulsion by Zionist troops | ||||||||||||||||
Village Temains | The village has been mostly destroyed with the exception of few houses (some are inhabited by Jewish settlers) | ||||||||||||||||
Ethnically Cleansing | Safsaf inhabitants were completely ethnically cleansed. | ||||||||||||||||
Terminating Refugee Camps |
The people of Safsaf were mostly ethnically cleansed Lebanon, however, some made it to Syria: |
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Clans |
So far we are aware of the following clans: |
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Pre-Nakba Land Ownership |
**Town Lands' Demarcation Maps |
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Land Usage As of 1945 |
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Population |
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Number of Houses | In (1931): 124, and according to Mohammad Edghaim's research Safsaf had 214 houses in 1947. | ||||||||||||||||
Near By Towns![]() |
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Town's Name Through History | The Romans referred to the village by safsofa. | ||||||||||||||||
Schools | Safsaf had an elementary school for boys founded during the British Mandate period. | ||||||||||||||||
Places of Warship | One mosque and the shrine of al-Ajami located in the southern borders of Safsaf. | ||||||||||||||||
Exculsive Jewish Colonies Who Usurped Village Lands |
ha-Shahar and Bar Yochay | ||||||||||||||||
Featured Video | |||||||||||||||||
Village Before NakbaThe village, situated on a low hill that inclined slightly to the southwest, was linked by a spur to a highway leading to Safad. Its name, Safsaf, meant 'willow' in Arabic. The village was called Safsofa in Roman times. In 1596, Safsaf was a village in the nahiya of Jira (liwa' of Safad) with a population of 138. It paid taxes on a number of crops, including wheat, barley, olives, and fruits, as well as on other types of produce, such as goats and beehives. [Hut. and Abd.:177] In the late nineteenth century, travelers reported that Safsaf was a small village situated on a plain, with a population of about 100. They also noted that 'ornamented stones of a preexisting public building' had been built into the doorway of the mosque; this may have indicated that the site had been abandoned for a time and then reinhabited. [SWP (1881) I:257] The villagers cultivated olive and fig trees and vineyards. [SWP (1881) I:200]In modern times the village lay on the eastern side of the Safad-Tarshiha highway and extended in a northeast-southwest direction. All of the residents of Safsaf were Muslims. A mosque and several shops were located in the village center, and an elementary school was established during the British Mandate. Agriculture, the chief economic activity, was both irrigated from springs and rainfed. Fruits and olives were cultivated on the land north of the village. In 1944/45 a total of 2,586 dunums was allotted to cereals; 769 dunums were irrigated or used for orchards Village Occupation and Ethnic CleaningSafsaf was the first village to be occupied during Operation Hiram (see 'Arab al-Samniyya, Acre sub-disctrict). In the early months of the war, the village had been the headquarters of the Arab Liberation Army's (ALA) Second Yarmuk Battalion, led by Adib al-Shishakli (later president of Syria), according to Palestinian historian 'Arif al-'Arif. It fell some time before dawn on 29 October 1948, and was the scene of one of several massacres committed during the operation. Two platoons of armored cars and a tank company from the Sheva' (Seventh) Brigade attacked the village. The History of the War of Independence states merely that the village 'was occupied after a brief battle.' However, Israel Galili, formerly head of the Haganah National Staff, has listed the crimes committed by the Israeli soldiers: '52 men tied with a rope and dropped into a well and shot. 10 were killed. Women pleaded for mercy. 3 cases of rape ... A girl aged 14 was raped. Another 4 were killed.' [M:230‒31; R:305; T:322]Eyewitnesses gave a more vivid account of the occupation of Safsaf. They said that when the attack began on the village, the militiamen were braced to defend it but were surprised by a three-pronged assault. One militaman said later, 'We did not expect to fight them on three fronts. When none of the Arab armies joined the fighting, we retreated, together with the ALA volunteers to Lebanon. We left behind most of the villagers, many dead or injured .... ' Those left behind recounted how the Israeli soldiers entered Safsaf around sunrise and ordered the villagers to line up in a spot in the northern part of the village. One villager told Palestinian historian Nafez Nazzal: 'As we lined up, a few Jewish soldiers ordered four girls to accompany them to carry water for the soldiers. Instead, they took them to our empty houses and raped them. About seventy of our men were blindfolded and shot to death, one after the other, in front of us. The soldiers took their bodies and threw them on the cement covering of the village's spring and dumped sand on them.' In later days, Israeli troops visited the village, telling the inhabitants that they should forget what had occurred and could stay in their homes. But they began to leave under cover of night, about four at a time, until Safsaf was empty. Zionists Colonies on Village LandsIsrael established the settlement of ha-Shahar, later renamed Sifsofa (191268), in 1949 on village lands. A second settlement, Bar Yochay (191267), was established in 1979, also on village lands. Both are very near, if not on top of, the village siteVillage TodayThe site is overgrown with grass and scattered trees among which can be seen a few terraces and piles of stones from destroyed houses. A few houses are inhabited by Israelis. A fraction of surrounding land is cultivated by the settlements, and the rest is forestedSourceDr. Walid al-Khalidi, 1992: All That Remains. |
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Related Maps | Town Lands' Demarcation Maps خرائط للقضاء توضح حدود القرى والاودية Town's map on MapQuest View from satellite Help us map this town at WikiMapia |
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Related Links | Wikipedia's Page Featured Article Google Search Google For Images Google For Videos |
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More Information | مخطط البلد في كتاب كي لا ننسى في كتاب بلادنا فلسطين المزيد من موقع هوية |
Display Name | Clan/Hamolah | Country of Residence |
Siraj Youness | Youness | Michigan , USA |
عبدالكريم يونس | - | الكويت |
Nader El Hourani | Hourani | - |
Ziad Younis | Younis | MA, USA |
nisheh | abu aisheh | west bank, palestine |
GHASSAN KAYED | KAYED | MI, USA |
Khaled Younes | Younes | - |
Ibn Nedal | YOUNIS | MA, USA |
Labid Afif Ahmad Taleb Mohammad Hamad | Hamad Abo Swaid | - |
رائف خالد | - | - |
mohammad shreidi | shreidi | doha, qatar |
Husam M Edghaim | Edghaim | Amman |
Abu Hamad | Hamad | Doha, Qatar |
ahmad slaeh | - | - |
Nidal | حمد | Norway, Norway |
Ibrahim Kayed | - | - |
Ali Zagmout | Ein Alhelweh | Saida, Lebanon |
MyQ89 | - | Doha, 009745430978 |
ashraf Hourani | حوراني | Lebanon |
Ali Charida | Shreidi | KY, USA |
Ab_Khalil | zaghmout | damascus- syria |
abo mohamed | kurdiya | skهne, sweden |
hamzeh khalid saleh | saleh | saida, lebanon |
Hussam Chreidah | Chreidah | Ontario, Canada |
Mohammed Bassem Shraidi | Shraidi | south, Lebanon |
Sami mohd Zaghmout | Zaghmout | Doha, Qatar |
Rawan Zaghmout | Zaghmout | Doha - Qatar |
okasha | salman | - |
mohamad hourani | hourani | saida |
Manar Younis | Younis | - |
Raghida Younis | Younis | MA, USA |
hks | صالح | saida, lebanon |
Ahmads | Younes | United Arab Emirates, United Arab Emirates |
Ibrahim Chakeeb Chriedie | - | UAE |
CHADI KAYED | - | dk, danmark |
merei | - | - |
Fouad Edaeibes | - | Alberta, Canada |
Rami Zaghmout | - | Qatar, Qatar |
ahmed zaghmout | - | - |
hadeel zaghmout | - | Doha, Qatar |
Nawaf Zaghmout | Zaghmout | Bahrain |
Mona Younis | YOUNIS | Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates |
KHALED KAYED | KAYED | UAE, UAE |
Abdulrahman Zaghmout | Zaghmout | Doha, Qatar |
Abu ez-zane | Hamad | - |
Rami Afif Ahmad Talib Mohamad Hamad | Hamad Abo Swaid | Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates |
ghassan | yousef | - |
Rihab Charida | Charida | NSW, AUSTRALIA |
Ali Mohammed Kurdieh | Kurdyeh | UAE |
abu atta | deaibes | abu dhabi, uae |
ABU ZAHIR | YOUNIS | - |
haysam obeid | obeid | windsor, canada |
khaled zaghmout | zaghmout | Ontario, Canada |
Mohammad Ahmad ALSheraidy | - | Ontario, Canada |
mohammed zaghmout | - | - |
Ahmad Younis | Younis | ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES |
IHAB KAYED | the | Lebanon , Lebanon |
YOUSSEF AL MIARI | AL-MIARI | WINDSOR-CANADA |
sofsafi | shreidi | tx, usa |
Mohd Hassan Hamad | Hamad | Lebanon, Lebanon |
SALAH EL-DDIN | EL-HOURANI | SAIDA, LEBANON |
SALE SHRIDIH | SHRIDIH | SAIDA, LEBANON |
ma7moud | ed-ghaim | dammam, saudi arabia |
Ali Husain Ali Hamad | Hamad | Sharjah, UAE |
MOHAMAD HAMAD | HAMAD | DAMASCUS, SYRIA |
Jullanar Shriedeh | - | AbuDhabi |
fadi el-saleh | el-salah | south of lebanon, lebanon |
Emad Zaghmout | Zaghmout | - |
abdulraman nizar Zaghmout | Zaghmout | qatar, Qatar |
hassan sabha | sabha | - |
Abo omar | Sabha | Sweden, Sweden |
Hassan El Hanoun | - | Saida, Lebanon |
Ousama Zaghmout | Zaghmout | USA |
IBRAHIM AWAD SALEH | - | sidon, lebanon |
Tarek Saleh | Saleh | ohio, United States |
Ibrahim awad Saleh | - | sidon, lebanon |
omar hamad | - | uae, uae |
meirna edghaim | - | - |
Manar Kabrawi | - | Abu Dhabi, UAE |
wassem shridh | shridh | lebanon, nbc |
kurdie | KURDIEH | lebanon, lebanon |
Sheikh ali alkadry | - | Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates |
el-hourani | el-hourani | united arab emirates, united arab emirates |
mohamad | sabha | south of lebanon, lebanon |
Abo Jakub | Hamad | Oslo, Norway |
Dua'a Younis | Younis | Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates |
Haytham Obaid | - | - |
Fouad Youssif | Abdul-Rahman | Tennessee, U S A |
ABDULLAH EDGHAIM | - | - |
fadi kurddieh | kurddieh | - |
hani kurdieh | sofsaf | - |
ABED YOUNIS | - | - |
obied | obied | lebanon, tripoli. nahr el bard |
Khalil Saleh | - | - |
thunder | el saleh | south of lebanon, lebanon |
HISHAM OBEID | obeid | holland |
moien obeid | Obeid | BEIRUT, Lebanon |
mamoon obeid | - | berlen, germany |
MOHD OBEID | obeid | tripol- naher el bared, lebanon |
Hassan Younes | younes | - |
Ayman Obeid | Obeid | abu dhabi, UAE |
Mohamad Kurdieh | Kurdieh | Saida, Lebanon |
khaled shreidi | - | montreal, canada |
TAREK KURDIEH | - | montreal, canada |
Ahmad Hamad | Hamad | Montreal, Canada |
Mohammad Abdallah Edghaim | Edghaim | - |
Ali Zeidan | - | - |