Israeli prime minister David Ben-Gurion and Israeli chief of staff Moshe Dayan ordered reprisal raids as a tough response to terror attacks . The message was that any attack on Israelis would be followed by a strong Israeli response . In the words of Ben-Gurion , from his lecture " retribution operations as a means to ensure the Peace " : This approach dominated in Israel during the 1950s and 1960s , although it was not the only one . Moshe Sharett , the Israeli prime minister during the retribution operations , objected to this policy and after the Ma'ale Akrabim massacre he wrote in his diary : The head of the United Nations truce observers , Canadian Lieutenant-General E.L.M. Burns , was very critical of what he described as " constant provocation of the Israeli forces and armed kibbutzim . " His conclusion was " The retaliation does not end the matter ; it goes on and on ... " Between 1949 and 1956 cross border attacks from Israel 's neighbours killed around 200 Israelis , with perhaps another 200 Israeli soldiers being killed in border clashes or IDF raids . Over the same period between 2,700 and 5,000 Arabs were killed . This figure includes many unarmed civilians who had crossed the border for economic or social reasons . Most were killed during 1949 – 1951 . After which the average was between 300 and 500 killed a year
Ma'ale Akrabim massacre
Ma'ale Akrabim massacre
Reprisal operations