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Al-Hamma Incident

Date	4 April 1951
Location	Al-Hamma, former Mandatory Palestine
Result	Syrian Victory - Israeli failure to enter Al-Hamma

Belligerents

Israel

Syria

Casualties and losses

7 soldiers killed

None

v t e Palestinian Fedayeen insurgency
Early engagements Al-Hamma Incident Beit Jala raid Yehud attack 1954–55 incidents Ma'ale Akrabim massacre Qibya massacre Operation Black Arrow Operation Elkayam Operation Egged Operation Volcano Operation Olive Leaves 1956 incidents Shafrir synagogue shooting attack Death and eulogy of Roi Rotberg Ein Ofarim killings Ramat Rachel shooting attack Negev desert road ambush
Reprisal operations

Palestinian Fedayeen
insurgency

Early engagements

1954–55 incidents

1956 incidents

Reprisal operations

The al-Hamma Incident (Hebrew: תקרית אל-חמה) refers to an event on 4 April 1951 that resulted in the death of seven IDF soldiers at the hands of Syrian military forces. The action occurred during an Israeli attempt to enforce its claimed sovereignty over the demilitarized zone along the Syrian border.

Background

Al-Hamma was in the territory of the British Mandate of Palestine, and allocated to the Jewish state under the 1947 UN partition plan. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the main thrust of the Syrian invasion of the Galilee crossed the border at Al-Hamma. According to the 1949 armistice agreement between Israel and Syria, it was determined that a string of villages, including Al-Hamma, Nuqeib, Al-Samra in the Tiberias Subdistrict, and Kirad al-Baqqara and Kirad al-Ghannama further north in the Safad Subdistrict, would be included the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between Israel and Syria. The inhabitants and their property were formally protected by Article V of the Israeli-Syrian agreement of 20 July that year. However, according to Benny Morris, Israel wanted the 2,200 Arab inhabitants of those villages to move to Syria. The Israeli military thought that the inhabitants of the DMZ remained loyal to Syria and they suspected them of helping Syrian intelligence. Local Jewish settlers and law enforcement suspected the villagers of petty crimes. Morris also noted that Israeli settlers and settlement agencies coveted the land of the local Arabs.

The incident

Until 1951, Israel had never patrolled or occupied Al-Hamma. However, in the spring of that year, Israel decided to assert its claimed sovereignty over the village. On 4 April that year, IDF General Staff (ignoring the protest from the Northern Command) sent two patrol-vehicles to the village. The patrol was disguised as policemen, as military forces were prohibited in the DMZ. Seven Israeli soldiers were killed by the Syrians.

According to the Syrian complaint to the Israel–Syria Mixed Armistice Commission, Israel sent a detachment of police to Al-Hamma as part of a preconceived plan to occupy the entire DMZ. After the Israelis opened fire on the local police post and Syrian police outpost, both were obliged to return fire. The Israeli version was that Syrian troops had entered Al-Hamma and disarmed the local police before firing on the Israeli police.

Reactions

The following day, four Israel planes bombed the police station at Al-Hamma and a Syrian positions at Al Hadid. Two women were killed, and six people reported injured. In addition, Israel decided to demolish the remaining houses in the Arab villages of Kirad al-Ghannama, Kirad al-Baqqara, Al-Samra and Nuqeib (in that order) to render the DMZ "clear of Arabs". Syria continued to control Al-Hamma until the 1967 Six-Day War. The enclave of Hamat Gader became a continuing source of friction between Israel and Syria.

References

Morris (2004), p. 253
Morris (2004), p. 512
Morris (2004), p. 513, note 56
Morris (2004), p. 513
^ Morris (1993), p. 362
^ Morris (1993), p. 363
UN Doc S/1353 Archived 26 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine Syria Israel Armistice Agreement of 20 July 1949, Article V
Morris (1993), p.363, citing Shalev: Shituf-Peula, 168-73
^ Letter Dated 17 April 1951 from the Acting Chief of Staff of the Truce Supervision Organization to the Secretary-General transmitting an Interim Report on the Status of Operations in the Syrian-Israel Mixed Armistice Commission, UN Document S/2099, April 23, 1951.
Sydney Gruson (5 April 1951). "Israelis Report 7 Slain By Syrians: Tel Aviv Charges That Troops Crossed Into Demilitarized Zone on Sea of Galilee". The New York Times. p. 18. Only summary available, for full article (subscription required) as of July 2022.

Bibliography

Morris, Benny (1993). Israel's Border Wars 1949–1956: Arab Infiltration, Israeli Retaliation, and the Countdown to the Suez War, Oxford, Clarendon Press, ISBN 0-19-827850-0
Morris, Benny (2004). The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-00967-6.
Morris, Benny (2008). 1948: The First Arab-Israeli War. Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-12696-9.

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