http://www.mideastweb.org/Mewnews/mnv1n15.htm

1948 Massacre at Tantura

              [Jan 21, 2000] Teddy Katz, an Israeli historian, claims to have uncovered
              credible evidence that Israeli troops massacred 200 Palestinians in the
              Palestinian village of Tantura, near Haifa, on May 22-23 1948.
              According to articles run by the Reuters news and Israel’s Ma’ariv
              newspaper, Katz, who did the research for a masters degree, said he had
              spoken to witnesses including soldiers who were present to support his
              findings. ``It started at night and was over in a few hours,'' Katz said,
              ``From testimonies and information I got from Jewish and Arab
              witnesses and from soldiers who were there, at least 200 people from
              the village of Tantura were killed by Israeli troops... ``From the
              numbers, this is definitely one of the biggest massacres,'' he told
              Reuters. However, there is no accurate count of how many were killed,
              and one Arab account claimed 78 dead. 

              The Israeli army said in a statement it had no evidence of a massacre in
              Tantura in May 1948. But the army said once it had the research in hand,
              ``it will be able to conduct a renewed examination of the subject.'' Katz
              said 14 Israeli soldiers were killed in the attack on the village. The man
              who led the assault was quoted as saying the villagers' deaths were a
              consequence of war and that reports of a massacre were ``just stories.''
              Shlomo Ambar, who was an explosives expert in the Alexandroni
              brigade and was present in the village, confirmed the massacre accounts
              of Arab witnesses in interviews with Katz, noting that no women or
              children were harmed, but that in addition to the shooting of unarmed
              prisoners there was also looting. He claimed that it was the one time
              that he remembers that troops ignored the bounds of decency and
              international law in dealing with the enemy, and can find no excuse for
              it. Subsequently, however he claimed that Katz misquoted him, as did
              others. 

              Tantura, near Haifa in northern Israel, numbered 1,500 residents at the
              time. It was later razed to make way for a parking lot for a nearby beach
              at Dor, and the Nahsholim kibbutz, or cooperative farm. The bodies are
              supposedly buried under the parking lot. Katz said the killing spree in
              Tantura was ``more tragic and bigger'' than in the village of Deir Yassin
              just west of Jerusalem, where scores of Palestinians were killed on
              April 9, 1948, in an assault by Jewish dissident forces of the Irgun and
              Lehi. Unlike the Deir Yassin massacre, performed by poorly trained
              dissident terrorist groups, the Tantura massacre was performed by elite
              troops of the crack Palmach Alexandroni brigade, though apparantly
              without the knowledge or consent of their superiors. 

              Meir Pail, who has lead the way in uncovering the facts about the Deir
              Yassin massacre, says he finds the report by Katz must be believed, as
               unpalatable as it is. Prof. Yoav Gelber, a historian of the 1948 War of
              Independence, says reports such as these without documentation are
              not to be belieaved, but Prof. Asa Kasher, who wrote the code of ethics
              of the IDF said "in Tantura a war crime was carried out."