On November 3, 1956, during the Suez Crisis, Israeli forces entered the town of Khan Younis in the Egyptian-administered Gaza Strip. What happened over the next several hours was one of the worst atrocities of the Arab-Israeli conflict — and one of the least remembered. Israeli soldiers carried out house-to-house searches for fedayeen (Palestinian guerrillas) and weapons. In the process, they systematically shot unarmed civilians — men, women, and children. When the day was over, 275 Palestinians lay dead, the vast majority of them civilians. The massacre at Khan Younis was not an isolated incident during Israel's brief occupation of Gaza (November 1956 – March 1957). Similar mass killings occurred in Rafah and other villages. But Khan Younis became a symbol — a wound that never healed. The massacre was documented by UNRWA, condemned by the UN, and then largely forgotten by the world. For the survivors and their descendants, it remains a defining trauma — part of the Nakba's unfinished story, a reminder that the catastrophe of 1948 did not end in 1948.
Summary: The Khan Younis Massacre took place on November 3, 1956, during Israel's occupation of the Gaza Strip in the Suez Crisis. Israeli forces, after capturing Khan Younis, conducted house-to-house searches that turned into mass killings. According to UNRWA and UN reports, approximately 275 Palestinian civilians were killed — including men lined up against walls and shot, and women and children killed in their homes. The massacre was one of several mass killings committed by Israeli forces in Gaza during the 1956 occupation. A mass grave was dug by survivors and relatives. The incident was investigated by the UN, which condemned Israel's actions. However, no Israeli soldier or commander was ever held accountable. The massacre has been largely absent from mainstream historical narratives of the conflict but remains a central memory in Palestinian collective consciousness, particularly in Gaza.
📜 Historical Context: Gaza in 1956
In 1956, the Gaza Strip was under Egyptian military administration, having been occupied by Egypt during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Gaza's population had been dramatically swollen by the influx of over 200,000 Palestinian refugees from the Nakba, who lived in camps administered by UNRWA. The territory had become a base for Palestinian fedayeen — guerrilla fighters who launched cross-border raids into Israel. These attacks, while militarily insignificant, were a constant irritant to Israel and a symbol of Palestinian refusal to accept dispossession. In October 1956, Israel colluded with Britain and France to attack Egypt in what became the Suez Crisis. As part of this operation, Israeli forces invaded Gaza. The occupation lasted from November 1956 to March 1957, and during those four months, Israel carried out a systematic campaign to eliminate fedayeen networks — a campaign that frequently blurred into mass killings of civilians.
Eyewitness Testimony — Khan Younis, November 3, 1956
"The soldiers came at dawn. They broke down doors. They dragged the men outside. They lined them up against the walls of the houses and shot them. My father was killed in front of me. My uncle was killed. My cousin. We buried them in a mass grave that night. I was seven years old. I remember everything." — Survivor, Khan Younis
🪖 The Day of the Massacre: November 3, 1956
Israeli forces captured Khan Younis on November 3, 1956, after overcoming Egyptian military resistance. According to UNRWA reports and survivor testimonies, Israeli soldiers then began systematic house-to-house searches. Men and boys aged roughly 15 to 60 were separated from women and children. Many were lined up against walls and shot at point-blank range. Others were killed inside their homes. Some were taken to the outskirts of the town and executed. The killings continued for hours. When the shooting stopped, 275 Palestinians were dead — the vast majority unarmed civilians. The victims included refugees from the 1948 Nakba and their descendants, who had already been displaced once and were now being killed in their places of refuge. The mass grave was dug by survivors and relatives under Israeli supervision. UNRWA director Henry Labouisse, who investigated the massacre, reported to the UN Secretary-General that "the large majority of the persons killed were unarmed." The UN General Assembly condemned the killings, but Israel denied any deliberate massacre, attributing the deaths to "combat operations."
🇺🇳 The UN Investigation and Cover-Up
The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which had staff on the ground in Khan Younis, documented the massacre in detail. The agency's director, Henry Labouisse, submitted a scathing report to UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld, describing mass executions of civilians. Labouisse was a former US diplomat who had served as the chief of the Marshall Plan — he was not a man easily dismissed. His findings were corroborated by journalists and international observers. The UN General Assembly passed resolutions condemning Israel's actions in Gaza and demanding withdrawal. Under intense US pressure — President Eisenhower was furious at the entire Suez adventure — Israel withdrew from Gaza in March 1957. But no Israelis were ever prosecuted. The massacre was buried under the larger geopolitical drama of the Suez Crisis and the Cold War. Israeli historians largely ignored it. The Palestinian victims were forgotten by the world.
📖 The Legacy: A Forgotten Massacre
The Khan Younis massacre was not the largest or the most infamous atrocity of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It was overshadowed by the Nakba of 1948, by the 1967 war and occupation, by the Sabra and Shatila massacre of 1982, and by the repeated wars in Gaza. But in its own terrible way, it is emblematic. It is a symbol of the asymmetry of memory in this conflict: events that are defining traumas for Palestinians are footnotes — or are entirely absent — from Israeli and Western historical narratives. The massacre at Khan Younis was documented in real time by international observers. It was condemned by the UN. And then it was forgotten. For the people of Khan Younis, it is not forgotten. Every November, they commemorate the massacre. The mass grave is marked. The names of the dead are recited. And the demand for justice, however distant, remains.
"They killed my father and my uncle and my brothers. They buried them in a mass grave. The world said nothing. The UN wrote a report. And then the world moved on. But we cannot move on. We will never move on. We will remember until justice is done." — Descendant of Khan Younis victims, Gaza, 2020