While the fighting was still in progress, we had to grapple with a troublesome problem, for whose solution we could not draw upon any previous experience: the fate of the civilian population of Lod and Ramie, numbering some 50,000. Not even Ben‐Gurion could offer any solution, and during the discussions at operational headquarters, he remained silent, as was his habit in such situations.

We walked outside, Ben‐Gurion accompanying us. Allon repeated his question: 'What is to be done with the population?' B.G. waved his hand in a gesture which said, 'Drive them out!'

'Driving out' is a term with a harsh ring. Psychologically, this was one of the most difficult actions we undertook. The population of Lod did not leave willingly. There was no way of avoiding the use of force and warning shots in order to make the inhabitants march the 10 to 15 miles to the point where they met up with the legion.

Great suffering was inflicted upon the men taking part in the eviction action. Soldiers of the Yiftach Brigade included youth‐movement graduates, who had been inculcated with values such as international brotherhood and humaneness. The eviction action went beyond the concepts they were used to. There were some fellows who refused to take part in the expulsion action.

My jeep made the turn and here at the entrance to the house opposite stands an Arab girl, stands and screams with eyes filled with fear and dread. She is all torn and dripping blood— she is certainly wounded. Around her on the ground lie the corpses of her family. Still quivering, death has not yet redeemed them from their pain... Did I fire at her? But why these thoughts, for we are in the midst of battle, in the midst of conquest of the town. The enemy is at every corner. Everyone is an enemy. Kill! Destroy! Murder!

A multitude of inhabitants walked one after another. Women walked burdened with packages and sacks on their heads. Mothers dragged children after them... For me, an archaeologist, the spectacle conjured up 'the memory of the exile of Israel [at Roman hands, two thousand years before]'; the town looked like 'after a pogrom'.

Children got lost and a child fell into a well and drowned, ignored, as his fellow refugees fought each other to draw water. The slow shuffling columns left a trail, to begin with utensils and furniture and in the end, bodies of men, women and children, scattered along the way.

They entered and started searching the place; they got to the storeroom, and took us out one-by-one. They shot the son-in-law, and when one of his daughters screamed, they shot her, too. They then called my brother Mahmoud and shot him in our presence, and when my mother screamed and bent over my brother (she was carrying my little sister Khadra who was still being breast fed) they shot my mother too. The children began crying and screaming. They told us that if we did not stop, they would shoot us all. The children did not stop crying. So they lined us up, shot at us, and left.

I was wounded but not killed. I looked around to see who was still alive: my uncle, his children and his wife were all dead, my sister Soumia who was only four, and my brother Mohamad, were alive.

As they burst into the village, the Jewish soldiers sprayed the houses with machine-gun fire, killing many of the inhabitants. The remaining villagers were then gathered in one place and murdered in cold blood, their bodies abused while a number of the women were raped and then killed.

The Deir Yassin episode is a black stain on the honour of the Jewish people... It is better for the time being to leave the land of Deir Yassin uncultivated and the houses of Deir Yassin unoccupied, rather than to carry out an action whose symbolic importance vastly outweighs its practical benefit. The settlement of Deir Yassin, if carried out a mere year after the crime, and within the regular settlement framework, will constitute something like approbation of the slaughter.

Working from hearsay, the Lydda refugee death toll during the trek eastward was estimated at 335 people who died from exhaustion, dehydration and disease before reaching temporary rest near and in Ramallah.