On October 29, 1956, on the eve of the joint Israeli, French and British invasion of Egypt, Israel moved up the time of the local curfew as it was concerned that nearby Jordan would enter the fighting.Spencer C. Tucker, Priscilla Roberts, 2008, The Encyclopedia of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Political, Social, and Military History, p. 567 After the curfew started, a platoon of Israeli border police who had been sent to the area encountered and killed 49 villagers returning to Kafr Qasim from their work in the fields. Though the village head had been informed a half an hour before the military curfew started, he informed the Israeli commander that the fellahin and shepherds could not be notified in time that the curfew had been imposed.Baruch Kimmerling,The Palestinian People:A History, Harvard University Press 2009 p.195. The incident became known as the Kafr Qasim massacre. In October 2021, the President of Israel Isaac Herzog made an official apology for the 1956 massacre, on behalf of the state.
