In An Act of Biological Terrorism, Zionists Pour Typhus Into the Water Supply, Causing an Epidemic of Typhoid Fever
In the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, Acre was designated part of a future Arab state. Operation Ben Ami was one of the last ethnic cleansing operations by the Hagana before the end of the British Mandate, all in territory granted to the Arabs under the proposed UN partition plan. After the fall of Haifa and Jaffa, Acre and Gaza were the only two remaining Palestinian towns with access to the sea. Acre was swollen with refugees from Haifa.
The attack on Acre begins with one of Israel’s first uses of biological warfare.
“I spoke to the company commander from Battalion 21 of the Carmel Brigade, who poured the stuff into the water supply,” said military historian Uri Milstein in a phone interview. Milstein, a controversial figure in Israel, said that the man had since died, that the material had been delivered to the battalion by Moshe Dayan, and that the container had been filled with the typhus bacterium.
“Apparently, or rather more than apparently, wells were poisoned too in order to stop villagers from returning to villages,” he added. (Times of Israel)
27th of May two Jews were caught doing the same in Gaza. Ben Gurion was notified. The two men were executed by Egypt.
In May, Zionists cut the towns electrical and water supply, worsening the spread of Typhus, which also killed a number of British.
Following the epidemic, Acre came under heavy artillery fire from the Carmeli Brigade. After two days of intense bombardment, loudspeakers told the villagers to either “Surrender or commit suicide. We will destroy you to the last man”. The villagers surrendered, fleeing the city, mostly either north to Lebanon or inland to Nazareth.
Sixty people were massacred.
French UN Observers state that after the villagers fled there was widespread and systematic looting of clothes, furniture, and anything else that might be useful to incoming Jewish settlers.
The Golani Brigade took over the neighboring town of Baysan, issuing an ultimatum for villagers to flee within 10 hours. This ultimatum was delivered to village elders, who refused, stockpiling food and weapons and preparing for a long siege. The Golani Brigade launched a ground assault and a handful of Zionists were captured by the Palestinians and taken as POWs. Unlike the Palestinians captured by the Zionists and held in cages if not executed, the Palestinians treated their captives well.
The Zionists launched a heavy air campaign and soon enough town surrendered. Some fled to Nazareth, and the others to Jordan.
A small number of Palestinians remained in the old city. In the 1950s, a number of Moroccan Jews were settled there. Today it remains one of the Israeli cities with the highest Palestinian Arab populations (approximately 32%) and there is frequent tension.