New material shows is that there were far more Israeli acts of massacre than I had previously thought. To my surprise, there were also many cases of rape. In the months of April-May 1948, units of the Haganah [the pre-state defense force that was the precursor of the IDF] were given operational orders that stated explicitly that they were to uproot the villagers, expel them and destroy the villages themselves.
In some cases four or five people were executed, in others the numbers were 70, 80, 100. There was also a great deal of arbitrary killing.
Benny Morris interview with Ari Shavit – Haaretz – 2004. [ Historians reveal Israel’s use of poison against Palestinians – Nasim Ahmad, 11 October 2022. ]