Newly disclosed testimonies by Israeli soldiers and archival documents published by Israeli newspaper Haaretz have shed new light on the displacement of Palestinians and Syrians during and after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, with accounts describing killings, expulsions, destruction of villages and widespread looting.
The investigation, published ahead of the 59th anniversary of the war and authored by Adam Raz, a researcher at the Akevot Institute for Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Research, is based on previously unpublished soldiers’ testimonies, military records, government correspondence and archival material.
According to the report, around 300,000 Arabs were expelled or displaced from the West Bank, Gaza and the occupied Syrian Golan Heights during and after the June 1967 war.
Haaretz said many of the testimonies originated from discussions held among Israeli soldiers in kibbutzim, Israel’s collective farming communities, shortly after the war. While some excerpts later appeared in the influential 1967 book, The Seventh Day: Soldiers Talk about the Six-Day War, numerous accounts describing alleged war crimes remained unpublished for decades.
Several testimonies cited by the newspaper describe killings of prisoners, civilians and refugees. One soldier was quoted as saying: “At first I wasn’t willing to execute Arabs who weren’t resisting. Then we came to the conclusion that we had to kill.”
Another soldier described operations in Gaza after the war, saying: “Human lives didn’t matter. You could kill, there was no law. No one would say a word to you.”
A third testimony referred to what the soldier described as “punitive expeditions” in Gaza’s refugee camps. “We caught guys, lined them up and eliminated them. In retrospect, it looks like murder,” he said.
Shoot-at-sight orders for returnees
The report also cites testimonies and archival documents alleging that Israeli forces were ordered to prevent Palestinians who had fled across the Jordan River from returning to the West Bank after the fighting ended.
According to Haaretz, soldiers received instructions to shoot people attempting to cross back into the territory.
The newspaper cited testimony later published by former Israeli lawmaker Uri Avnery, who quoted a soldier as saying troops received orders to “shoot, to kill, without prior warning.”
Another soldier recalled questioning whether such orders applied even if families with children were crossing the river. According to the testimony, he asked: “If I hear babies crying, should I shoot then too?” and was told: “Don’t be a girl.”
Haaretz said military records indicated that by early September 1967, nearly 150 Palestinians had been killed while attempting to return from Jordan. The newspaper also cited statements by senior Israeli military officials acknowledging the existence of orders aimed at preventing refugee returns.
According to the investigation, displacement during the war was not solely the result of battlefield conditions. The report cites government discussions and military documents suggesting that senior Israeli political and military leaders viewed the departure of Arab residents as desirable and, in some cases, encouraged or facilitated it.
Among the most prominent examples highlighted by the report was the expulsion of residents from the Latrun villages of Imwas, Yalo and Beit Nuba west of Jerusalem. The villages were captured during the war and their approximately 8,000 residents were ordered to leave, according to the investigation.
Haaretz reported that the villages were subsequently demolished and their inhabitants prevented from returning. The area later became the site of Canada Park.
