 After the town's surrender, negotiated by four priests, the commander of the Golani troops selected 13-14 young Arab men of the 'Arab al-Mawasi Bedouin tribe and had them executed, in what became known as the Eilabun massacre, the point being to compel the rest of the tribe to leave.According to historian Benny Morris, those executed were Christians, and the executions were "apparently precipitated by the occupying troops' discovery of the decapitated bodies and one or both heads of two Israeli soldiers captured by ALA troops a month before,"  The village was then looted.Most of the town's residents were marched out to the Lebanese border, while hundreds fled to nearby gullies, caves and villages.