among Tantura's Arab residents was low after the fall of Haifa. In early May, the population was reportedly ready to surrender if attacked or given an ultimatum, but was not to give up their weapons, and some residents began fleeing after an incident in which a local man murdered a Jew and was in turn killed. Many villagers fled to Tyre by boat. Perhaps heartened by the arrival of Arab forces in Israel/Palestine in mid-May, Tantura's villagers and those of surrounding towns decided to remain and fight. The inhabitants subsequently began to prepare defensive fortifications and lay mines. On the night of May 22–23, the Alexandroni Brigade's 33rd battalion launched an attack, employing heavy machine gun fire, followed by an infantry attack from all landward sides with an Israeli naval vessel blocking any chance of escape to the sea. Although the villagers put up serious resistance, the village fell to the Brigade by 0800hrs on May 23. According to an unsigned Haganah report, dozens of villagers were killed and 500 were taken prisoner (300 adult males and 200 women and children). Most of the villagers fled to the nearby town of Fureidis and territory protected by the Arab League in the Triangle region near to what was to become the Green Line. Women and children were taken to Fureidis, which had already surrendered. On May 31, 1948, Bechor Shitrit, Minister of Minority Affairs of the Provisional government of Israel, sought permission to expel them due to overcrowding, lack of sanitation, and the risk of information being passed to unconquered villages. Haganah intelligence also pressured Ben-Gurion to expel them as they were giving intelligence to nearby unconquered Arab villages and due to problems with sanitation and overcrowding. It is unknown whether Ben-Gurion replied or not, but on 18 June most of the Tantura women and children were expelled to Tulkarm. Some women and children, probably those with male relatives still in Israeli detention, were allowed to remain in Fureidis. A Ministry official, Ya'akov Epstein of Zikhron Ya'akov, who visited Tantura shortly after the operation, reported seeing bodies, but said nothing of a massacre. In 1998, Yahya Al Yahya published a book on Tantura recording the names of 52 dead. The occupation of the village was followed by looting. Some of the items recovered by the Haganah included 'one carpet, one gramophone ... one basket with cucumbers ... one goat'. The male