In 2005 Wikipedia's first sentence called it “carried out by haganah troops”. Today it says “attack on the palestinian village of al-khisas carried out by the palmach on december 18”.
Measured, not asserted. Every count, date and revision on this page was taken from Wikipedia's own history and checked against the live article. The words quoted are theirs.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-02. In 2005 Wikipedia's first sentence called it “carried out by haganah troops”. Today it says “attack on the palestinian village of al-khisas carried out by the palmach on december 18”.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the 2005 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in 2005
The al-Khisas massacre happened in the Palestinian village al-Khisas Dec 18 , 1947 close to the Syrian border and was carried out by Haganah troops, possibly from Palmach . It was apparently a reprisal for casaulties suffered in Safad and for a Jew that had recently been killed by an Arab near al-Khisas. Ten Palestinians were killed, five of them children, and five were wounded. See also : List of massacres committed during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war1
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 16319915.
The opening as it stood in 2015 4 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
The al-Khisas raid took place in al-Khisas in Mandatory Palestine on December 18, 1947 near to the Syrian border and was carried out by Haganah militiamen, possibly from Palmach .The raid was performed in reprisal to a shooting in which a passenger on a horse-cart from a nearby kibbutz was shot and killed earlier that day.Local Palmach commanders mistakenly assumed the shooting emanated from al-Khisas.The rationale at that time for the raid was that "if there was no reaction to the murder, the Arabs would interpret this as a sign of weakness and an invitation to further attacks".The Hagana High Command approved an attack on men only and the burning of a few houses.Twelve Arab residents of Al-Khisas were killed, four of them children.The Jewish leadership at the time sharply criticized the attack.Three weeks later, Arab forces crossed the Syrian border and carried out a reprisal attack on the kibbutz Kfar Szold , but suffered heavy losses and were repulsed.The events led to an escalation in violence that rapidly spread through the Upper Galilee region.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 665530621.
The opening as it stood in 2020
The al-Khisas raid took place in al-Khisas in Mandatory Palestine on December 18, 1947, near to the Syrian border and was carried out by Haganah militiamen, possibly from Palmach . The raid was performed in reprisal to a shooting in which a passenger on a horse-cart from a nearby kibbutz was shot and killed earlier that day. Local Palmach commanders mistakenly assumed the shooting emanated from al-Khisas. The rationale at that time for the raid was that "if there was no reaction to the murder, the Arabs would interpret this as a sign of weakness and an invitation to further attacks". The Hagana High Command approved an attack on men only and the burning of a few houses. Twelve Arab residents of Al-Khisas were killed, four of them children. The Jewish leadership at the time sharply criticized the attack. Three weeks later, Arab forces crossed the Syrian border and carried out a reprisal attack on the kibbutz Kfar Szold , but suffered heavy losses and were repulsed. The events led to an escalation in violence that rapidly spread through the Upper Galilee region.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 936430503.
The opening as it stood on October 6, 2023
The al-Khisas massacre took place in al-Khisas in Mandatory Palestine on December 18, 1947, near the Syrian border and was carried out by Haganah militiamen, possibly from Palmach . The raid was performed in reprisal to a shooting in which a passenger on a horse-cart from a nearby kibbutz was shot and killed earlier that day, in an unrelated personal vendetta. Local Palmach commanders mistakenly assumed the shooting was political, and mistakenly judged that it had emanated from al-Khisas. The rationale at that time for the raid was that "if there was no reaction to the murder, the Arabs would interpret this as a sign of weakness and an invitation to further attacks". The Hagana High Command approved an attack on men only and the burning of a few houses. Twelve Arab residents of Al-Khisas were killed, four of them children. The Jewish leadership at the time sharply criticized the attack. Three weeks later, Arab forces crossed the Syrian border and carried out a reprisal attack on the kibbutz Kfar Szold , but suffered heavy losses and were repulsed. The events led to an escalation in violence that rapidly spread through the Upper Galilee region; the region had generally been quiet before the massacre, which was blamed for unnecessarily widening the hostilities.Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict .
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1169067476.
The opening as it stood in 2025 10 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
Raid on Arab village, mandatory palestine The al-Khisas raid , also known as the al-Khisas massacre , was an attack on the Palestinian village of al-Khisas carried out by the Palmach on December 18, 1947, during the 1948 Palestine war . 10-15 Palestinian villagers were killed in the attack, including 5 children.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1287389379. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
In 2005 Wikipedia's first sentence called it “carried out by haganah troops”. Today it says “attack on the palestinian village of al-khisas carried out by the palmach on december 18”. Read the current article and compare.
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massacre
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Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
What Wikipedia says this is
Every article opens by defining its subject. This one was redefined between 2005 and 2025.
Then
carried out by haganah troops
Now
attack on the palestinian village of al-khisas carried out by the palmach on december 18
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.