Arab al-Mawasi massacre

On November 2, 1948, two squads of Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers captured a Palestinian Bedouin village located at Khirbat al-Wa'ra al-Sawda in the Tiberias Subdistrict of Mandatory Palestine. While some of the soldiers guarded the village's residents, others went to a nearby hilltop, where they discovered the headless bodies of two Israeli soldiers.

In what is described as retaliation for the discovery, the soldiers destroyed the Bedouin homes in the village and shot 15 to 16 adult male residents. Of those shot, 14 died. Most of the victims were members of the 'Arab Al-Mawasi clan, a Bedouin community living in the area at the time.

The bodies of those killed were buried in a cave adjacent to the site of the killings. In the 1950s, construction of the Israeli National Water Project passed through the cave, prompting members of the Mawasi community to relocate the remains to another cave. During the 1980s, the bones were moved again, this time to a common grave in the Muslim cemetery in the town of Eilabun, where they remain.

No individuals—victims, perpetrators, or investigators—are named, and no legal proceedings, charges, or convictions related to the incident are documented.