Killings and massacres in Mandatory Palestine

Killings and massacres in Mandatory Palestine included attacks on Jewish and Arab civilians, killings by British security forces, bombings by Jewish underground organizations and violence within the Arab community. The chronology below identifies the actors and the counting scope of each entry. It includes the transitional British administration before the Mandate formally entered into force on 29 September 1923; the Mandate ended at midnight on 14–15 May 1948.

The documented violence predates Israel’s establishment. Its development can be followed through particular attacks, political conflicts and official responses. Responsibility belongs to the people and organizations that committed or ordered an act; the victims’ identity establishes whom an attack harmed.

Chronology

This is a selected, expanding chronology of documented episodes. Regional outbreaks and their component attacks are identified explicitly so that their victims can be counted once. “Casualties” in contemporary reports can include both deaths and injuries; the death column below follows the source’s actual distinction.

Date	Place and episode	Actors and action	Deaths and scope of the figure
4–7 April 1920	Jerusalem: Nebi Musa riots	Arab rioters attacked Jews; some Arab police participated or remained passive, and British troops intervened.	5 Jews and 4 Arabs. The Anglo-American Committee’s retrospective account gives 211 Jewish and 21 Arab wounded, distinguishing these from the dead.
1–7 May 1921	Jaffa and neighbouring settlements	An initial clash between Jewish demonstrations developed into Arab attacks on Jews and attacks on agricultural settlements. The Haycraft Commission also documented police participation in violence and military intervention against attackers.	47 Jews and 48 Arabs recorded dead or mortally wounded in the medical return. The same table records 146 Jewish and 73 Arab wounded. The commission reported additional unrecorded Arab dead.
23–29 August 1929	Countrywide outbreak, including Jerusalem, Hebron and Safed	Arab mobs carried out extensive attacks on Jews; Jewish attacks on Arabs also occurred. Police and soldiers fired on crowds and attackers.	133 Jews and 116 Arabs in the amended official figures. Many Arab deaths resulted from police or military fire. The following three rows are components of this outbreak.
24 August 1929	Hebron massacre	Arab attackers killed Jews in their homes and the Jewish quarter, including women and children.	More than 60 Jews in the Shaw Commission’s narrative. Included in the countrywide Jewish total above.
25–26 August 1929	Jewish attack in the Jaffa–Tel Aviv boundary quarter	Jewish attackers killed the imam of a mosque and other Arabs. The commission describes this within its account of these two days.	An imam and about six others, according to the Shaw report. Included in the outbreak above.
29 August 1929	Safed: attack on the Jewish quarter	Arab mobs attacked residents and burned and looted houses and shops.	The Shaw narrative gives about 45 Jews killed or wounded together. That combined figure is retained as such here, rather than converted into a death toll.
13 October–3 November 1933	Demonstrations and repression in Jerusalem, Jaffa, Haifa and Nablus	Arab demonstrators clashed with police. The Murison inquiry attributed a policeman’s death to a stone and the civilian deaths to rifle and revolver fire.	1 policeman and 26 members of the public in the inquiry’s overall return, as reported when it was published. This is a whole-series figure.
May 1938	Arab villages: murders during the revolt	The annual administration report records killings of Arab villagers, including three village headmen and three women, amid rebel coercion and political violence.	22 Arab villagers murdered during the month. This aggregate describes multiple incidents.
24–25 May 1938	Jerusalem and Haifa: retaliatory attacks	Following the killing of a Jewish pedlar, reprisals killed Arabs and a Russian nun. The authorities arrested Jewish suspects.	4 Arabs and 1 Russian nun.
6 and 25 July 1938	Haifa: two Arab fruit-market bombings	Bombers attacked the crowded Arab market. Irgun’s bombing campaign targeted Arab civilians during this period.	74 Arabs killed in the two bombings combined, according to the annual report. A further 10 Jews died in the ensuing riots and violence, a separate causal category.
August 1938	Mount Carmel: ambush of a Jewish lorry	Armed attackers ambushed the vehicle; British troops then engaged the ambushers.	8 Jewish men killed in the ambush; 7 ambushers killed in the subsequent engagement. Two women were wounded.
25 August 1938	Jaffa: Arab vegetable-market bombing	A time bomb exploded in the crowded market. Subsequent attacks on banks and a shop were repulsed by police.	24 Arabs killed by the bomb; 2 Arab rioters killed during the ensuing disorder.
6 September 1938	Tiberias: shootings	Four Arab attackers shot Jews; police subsequently arrested the attackers.	3 Jews killed; a Jew and an Arab wounded.
10 September 1938	Gaza–Jaffa road: police ambush	Attackers ambushed Jewish constables during the revolt.	7 Jewish constables.
2 October 1938	Tiberias massacre	An armed Arab band attacked the Jewish quarter, killing residents and setting buildings alight.	19 Jews, including women and children, in the administration’s annual report. JTA’s immediate report gave 21, illustrating the need to identify the date and source of a toll.
22 July 1946	Jerusalem: King David Hotel bombing	Irgun bombed the hotel wing housing British administrative and military offices.	91 people, including Arabs, Britons and Jews. The initial parliamentary statement still counted missing people separately.
1 March 1947	Jerusalem: Goldsmith Officers’ Club attack and other attacks that day	Armed Jewish underground attackers drove a vehicle into the club’s defences while accomplices fired on its guards; an explosion destroyed part of the building.	The government initially reported 18 dead across that day’s attacks, including civilians. That figure covers a wider set of incidents than the club alone.
31 July 1947	Tel Aviv: shootings after the hanging of two British sergeants	British police and soldiers were accused of firing on Jewish residents and attacking property. Contemporary reporting records five Jewish deaths in the outbreak.	5 Jews. The repeated accounts of these deaths describe one episode.
9 April 1948	Deir Yassin massacre	Irgun and Lehi attacked the Arab village. Red Cross delegate Jacques de Reynier subsequently found bodies and wounded survivors; his report condemned the action.	More than 100 Palestinian residents in later reporting. Contemporary estimates of roughly 200–250 require separate attribution: de Reynier’s 13 April report distinguishes bodies he saw from a larger figure supplied by the Irgun commander.
13 April 1948	Jerusalem: Hadassah medical convoy attack	Arab attackers ambushed the convoy travelling to the hospital on Mount Scopus. The victims included medical staff and other convoy passengers.	78 men and women commemorated by Hadassah. The memorial figure identifies the convoy victims it commemorates.

Reading the figures

The 1921 medical return, the 1929 inquiry and the 1938 administration report show several different kinds of violence within the same outbreak: attacks on civilians, armed resistance, police fire and military engagements. Recording these separately preserves both the victims and the responsibility for their deaths. The 1929 regional total includes Hebron and Safed; adding those component attacks again would inflate it. The two July 1938 Haifa bombings likewise have a combined official return, followed by a separately reported toll from the ensuing violence.

For the earlier local history, continue with Violence in Palestine before British rule. For the wider regional history, see Antisemitic violence in the Arab world before 1948. Property transactions and political borders are discussed in Jewish land purchases in Mandatory Palestine.