The rifle-armed force charged first across the front lines, followed by the men armed with axes, shovels, and sticks, and then the women who carried water to assist the wounded. Al-Birwa's ad-hoc militia took the small force of Haganah soldiers (who became part of the Israel Defense Forces on 26 May) by surprise and forced them back a kilometer west of al-Birwa. Afterward, al-Birwa's residents harvested their crops. They remained in the village until 24 June, when ALA commanders suggested that they join their families in the nearby villages. The militiamen claimed that the ALA stood by during the clashes because they did not receive orders from their superiors. The Israelis announced that they had battled ALA units in the area, inflicting 100 casualties on 25 June. "The New York Times" reported that there was fighting in the village for two days and that United Nations (UN) observers were there investigating truce violations. It added that "a small Israeli garrison held al-Birwa prior to the [first] truce", but it fell to ALA troops based in Nazareth who launched a surprise attack. Some residents camped in the outskirts of the village and occasionally managed to enter and gather personal belongings. After the end of the first truce in mid-July, al-Birwa was captured by Israel during Operation Dekel. The ALA fought the Israelis to recapture al-Birwa, but by 18 July, the village was firmly behind Israeli lines. On 20 August 1948, the Jewish National Fund called for building a settlement on some of al-Birwa's lands, and on 6 January 1949, Yas'ur, a kibbutz, was established there. In 1950, the moshav of Ahihud was inaugurated on the village's western lands. According to Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi, one of al-Birwa's schools, two shrines for local sages, and three houses remained standing as of 1982. One of the shrines was domed and built of stone. Most of the structures stood amid cacti, weeds, olive and fig groves, and mulberry trees. Most of al-Birwa's inhabitants fled to nearby Arab towns and villages, including Tamra, Kabul, Jadeidi, Kafr Yasif, and other localities. In Jadeidi the refugees of al-Birwa mostly resided in a neighborhood called al-Barawneh after their village of origin or alternatively al-Kayyali after the Kayyal family, many of whom lived in the neighborhood and one of whom, Afif Kayyal, was elected mayor in the 1990s and in 2003.