May 23, 2023

Seventy-five years have passed since the Tantura massacre, yet the sunset still falls over its enchanting shore—its sand and rocks, the islands offshore, the wooden fishing boats, the remnants of trees and building stones, and the air moving through it all—Palestine.

Beneath the ground, where more than 230 victims were buried in mass graves on May 23, 1948, their remains are still bound to the roots of the land, even if only in the form of graves.

On the night of May 22 and the day of May 23, 1948, Zionist Haganah forces occupied Tantura and forced dozens of its residents to dig trenches before opening fire on them and burying them in those trenches and in mass graves.

Before that date, Tantura was known for its coastal railway station, while its residents were renowned for fishing. Today, what remains of the village includes the al-Mujayrimi shrine, the al-Yahya family house, and a school built in the early 1940s. The 33rd Battalion of the Alexandroni Brigade later erected a memorial on a mound above the school, which is now used as a fisheries research station affiliated with Israel’s Ministry of Agriculture.