on march 27, 1948, hundreds of armed villagers and units of the arab liberation army attacked a jewish convoy near kabri, killing forty-nine jews. six arabs were also killed in the battle. two months later the commander of operation ben-ami gave operational orders given that day were to "attack with the aim of capturing, the villages of kabri, umm al faraj and al-nahr, to kill the men [and] to destroy and set fire to the villages." benvenisti states that "the orders were carried out to the letter", while morris writes that a number of villagers were apparently executed.