In a thread on Twitter, Israeli journalist Yossi Melman revealed the details of an incident in the 1967 War, in which, according to his account, at least 20 Egyptian soldiers were burned alive and buried in a mass grave by soldiers from the Israeli Defence Force (IDF). The tweets, which Melman published on 8 June, cite files that saw the light after 55 years of being classified, and the story “hushed up” by the IDF. While he puts the figure at a minimum of 20, other sources – including a report from Israeli newspaper Haaretz – estimate a number as high as 80 unidentified, unmarked, buried casualties. Melman details that the massacre took place in a no-man’s land in the West Bank, where two Egyptian battalions were deployed to raid the city of Lod and nearby airfields. After an exchange of gunfire between the Egyptian soldiers and the IDF along with members of the Nahshon Kibbutz, a communal settlement in the area, where a number of Egyptian soldiers were captured. Subsequently the IDF set fire to wild bushes, which in the dry and hot weather of the time spread rapidly,…
Mass Burning and Burial of Egyptian Soldiers in Israel Revealed After 55 Years
July 10, 2022
