result of attacks on civilians by Israeli forces, massacres, looting, destruction of property and other atrocities. At least 70 massacres took place throughout the Nakba.42 The choice of a village was not random. Often there existed a clear relationship between the timing of a massacre in an outlying village and the assault on a major nearby town or city.43 Palestinians fleeing their villages in search of temporary refuge were fired upon to ensure their departure. Incidents like these occurred in major cities throughout the country, including Haifa, Jaffa, Akka, Ramle, Lydd and Jerusalem, as well as in many villages.44 Many sought temporary refuge elsewhere after hearing news of atrocities against the civilian population.45 This included a spate of nine reported massacres in October 1948, in which Palestinian Arab villagers were raped, bound, executed and dumped in mass graves. The Israeli military systematically destroyed hundreds of Palestinian villages during the war. A “Retroactive Transfer” plan approved in June 1948 by the Israeli Finance Minister and Prime Minister to prevent Palestinian refugees from returning to their homes.46 The destruction of homes and entire villages included large-scale looting.47 Between 750,000 and 900,000 Palestinians (55 to 66 percent of the total Palestinian population at the time) were displaced between the end of 1947 and early 1949. Half of these were displaced before 15 May 1948, when 42 Abdel Jawad, S., 2007, “Zionist Massacres: the Creation of the Palestinian Refugee Problem in the 1948 War”, in Benvenisti, E., Gans, C. and Hanafi, S., Israel and the Palestinian Refugees, Berlin, New York: Springer, p. 59-127. 43 For example the massacre in Nasir el-Dien was just a few days before Tiberias was besieged. The multiple massacres in Ein Zaytoun were used to ‘soften up’ Safad before the final assault on that city. Cited in Ibid. 44 See Morris, Benny, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947–1949, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987; Also see Abdel Jawad, S., 2007. 45 This included massacres in Mansurat al-Khayt (18 January 1948), Dayr Yassin (9 April 1948), Khirbat Nasir el-Din (12 April 1948), Hawsha (15 April 1948), Khirbeh Wa’ra al-Sawda (18 April 1948), Husayniyya (21 April 1948), Balad ash-Sheikh (25 April 1948), Ayn az-Zaytun (2 May 1948), Burayr (12 May 1948), Khubbayza (12 May 1948), Abu Shusha (14 May 1948), Tantoura (21 May 1948), al-Khisas (25 May 1948), Lydda (10 July 1948), al-Tira (16 July 1948), Ijzim (24 July 1948), Beer Sheeba (21 October 1948), Safsaf (29 October 1948), al-Dawayima (29 October 1948), Khirbeh as-Samniyya (30 October 1948), Saliha (30 October 1948), Sa’sa (30 October 1948), Eilaboun (29 October 1948), Jish (29 October 1948), and Majd al-Kroum (29 October 1948). For accounts of these massacres, see Morris, Benny, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem. 46 “Retroactive Transfer, A Scheme for the Solution of the Arab Question in the State of Israel,” a memorandum signed by Yosef Weitz, Ezra Danin and Elias Sasson, cited in Morris, Benny, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, p. 136. 47 For descriptions of incidents of looting and destruction of property, see Morris, Benny, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem. Also see Segev, Tom, 1949: The First Israelis, New York: The Free Press, 1986. Looting was so widespread that Ben Gurion described it as “the mass robbery in which all parts of the population participated.” Israel designated a “Custodian of Abandoned Property”, to oversee warehouses in which Palestinian property from 45,000 homes and apartments, 7,000 shops and business, 500 workshops and industrial plants, and 1,000 warehouses was stored away and eventually redistributed or sold off. This aside from the enormous agricultural wealth left behind from over 800,000 acres of orchards and fields. 19