Attack on West Bank village Qibya – Letter from Jordan

LETTER DATED 16 OCTOBER 1953 FROM THE ENVOY EXTRAORDINARY

AND MINISTER PLENIPOTENTIARY OF JORDAN TO THE UNITED STATES

OF AMERICA ADDRESSED TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SECURITY COUNCIL

Washington, 16 October 1953

Your Excellency:

Under instructions from my Government, I have the honour to bring the following matter to your attention:

On Wednesday, October 14, 1953, at 9.30 p.m., a battalion scale attack was launched by Israeli troops on the village of Quibya in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.  The Israelis entered the village and systematically murdered all occupants of houses, using automatic weapons, grenades, and incendiaries; and dynamited houses over victims’ heads.  On October 14 the bodies of forty-two Arab civilians were recovered.  Four men and thirty-eight women and children bore small arms of grenade wounds.  Several more bodies were still under the wreckage.  Forty houses, the village school, and a reservoir were destroyed.  Twenty-two cattle were killed and six shops looted.  Approach roads from neighbouring villages were mined.  Several men of the village police and National Guard, who were absent on frontier duty preventing Jordan infiltrators from entering Israel, lost their families – one man lost his entire family of eleven.  Quantities of unused explosives bearing Israel Army markings in Hebrew were found in the village.

At about 3 a.m., to cover their withdrawal, Israeli support troops began shelling the neighbouring villages of Budrus and Shuqba from positions in Israel, damaging a number of houses.

On that same day, October 14, Israel had been condemned by the Mixed Armistice Commission for ambushes on a civilian bus and a taxi travelling between Beit Sira and Latrun.  At an emergency meeting on October 15, the Mixed Armistice Commission condemned Israel by majority vote for the attack by Israel’s regular Army on Quibya and Shuqba, and for the shelling of Budrus by a supporting unit of the Israeli attacking forces (under the Armistice Agreement, Article 3, Paragraphs 2 and 3).  The Commission passed a resolution by majority vote, calling upon the Israeli Government to take immediate and most urgent steps to prevent the recurrence of such aggressions of Jordan and Jordan citizens.

The Jordan Government has taken appropriate measures to meet the emergency.  However, it feels that this criminal Israeli aggression is so serious that it might start a war in the area.  It has the view, therefore, that the situation calls imperatively for an immediate and effective action by the United Nations, and especially by those nations party to the Tripartite Declaration of May 25, 1950.

It is requested that copies of my letter please be circulated among the members of the Security Council.

Please, Excellency, accept the assurances of my highest consideration.

Dr.Y. HAIKAL

Envoy Extraordinary and Minister

Plenipotentiary of Jordan to the

United States of America

His Excellency

The President of the Security Council

The United Nations Organization

New York, New York