Al-Khisas raid
The al-Khisas raid took place in al-Khisas in Mandatory Palestine on December 18, 1947 near to the Syrian border and was carried out by Haganah militiamen, possibly from Palmach. The raid was performed in reprisal to a shooting in which a passenger on a horse-cart from a nearby kibbutz was shot and killed earlier that day.[1] Local Palmach commanders mistakenly assumed the shooting emanated from al-Khisas.[1] The rationale at that time for the raid was that "if there was no reaction to the murder, the Arabs would interpret this as a sign of weakness and an invitation to further attacks".[1] The Hagana High Command approved an attack on men only and the burning of a few houses.[1] Twelve Arab residents of Al-Khisas were killed, four of them children.[1] The Jewish leadership at the time sharply criticized the attack.[1] Three weeks later, Arab forces crossed the Syrian border and carried out a reprisal attack on the kibbutz Kfar Szold, but suffered heavy losses and were repulsed.[1] The events led to an escalation in violence that rapidly spread through the Upper Galilee region.[1]