On December 30 , 1947 , a grenade attack by Irgun killed 6 Arab civilians in front of the Haifa Oil Refinery , after which the Arab crowd went in and killed 39 Jewish refinery workers . During the night of the following day , Haganah troops entered the town disguised as Arabs and killed 14-60 during a firefight in which 3 Haganah members were also killed . According to Israeli historian Aryeh Yitzhaki , the attack was carried out by a combination of Palmach and Haganah forces who entered the town and fought mostly inside the houses , resulting in mostly non-combatant casualties . Following the attack , on January 7 , 1948 , part of the residents of the village left and were replaced by Arab volunteers who came from Haifa to defend the village
killed 39 Jewish refinery workers
Haifa Oil Refinery massacre
Balad al-Sheikh