The death of the perpetrator of the massacre of Egyptian soldiers in 1948.. Who is “Amitsur Cohen”, the butcher of Israel?

The death of the perpetrator of the massacre of Egyptian soldiers in 1948.. Who is “Amitsur Cohen”, the butcher of Israel?
The death of the perpetrator of the massacre of Egyptian soldiers in 1948.. Who is “Amitsur Cohen”, the butcher of Israel?

“I did not remember the number of Arabs I killed in 1948. I never counted the number, because I was a murderer, and I did not take any prisoners. Rather, I was killing the prisoners themselves,” a sentence that remained stuck in the minds of the Egyptians, and of which the famous Israeli officer, Amitsur Cohen, boasted about the perpetrators of the massacres. Against Egyptian soldiers during the 1948 war, before announcing his death at the age of 96, according to the Israeli newspaper “Haaretz”.

The Israeli newspaper revealed that Cohen was always bragging about his killing of Arab soldiers in general and Egyptians in particular, as he appeared in one of the previous TV interviews bragging about the crimes against humanity he had committed.

Amitsur Cohen participated in the 1948 war with a machine gun, killed hundreds of Arab soldiers, and once regretted what he had done, saying in a televised interview: “There are moments when you become an animal,” citing a situation in which a group of Arab and Egyptian soldiers waved the white flag, but despite that He kills them with his machine gun and grenades.

And the former fighter of the Israeli Alexandroni Brigade added, in the Israeli documentary film “Tantora”, which was broadcast last year, and caused a sensation due to the accounts it contains of violence committed by the Israeli army: “I was a murderer, I did not take prisoners, I no longer counted their numbers, I had a machine gun.” It contained 250 bullets, all of which emptied into the bodies of Egyptians and Arabs.”

When asked in another interview whether there was a massacre, he replied: “There is neither a bear nor a forest.” According to him, he killed all the soldiers who lowered their weapons and those who did not lower them and those who barricaded themselves in the houses.

Where was the Israeli officer “Cohen” born?

The Israeli officer, Amitsur Cohen, was born in the “Benyamina” settlement in 1927 to his father Aharon and his mother Maryam, and he was one of the founders of the settlement.

Cohen joined the Zionist “Lehi” secret movement to resist and exterminate the Arabs in 1946, and although his father and older brother were members of the armed Zionist “Haganah” gangs, he later explained: “I was looking for work,” and after I was captured Zionist underground ideology, he said: “I was ready for that, to kill without worrying.”

How did “Cohen” take revenge on the Arabs for a “gun”?

Among the first operations in which he participated was the return of a gun that the Arabs had stolen from a settlement guard who fell asleep while guarding him. Amitsur joined a group that went to a nearby Arab village to retrieve the weapon. They came across an “old Arab” who hit him on the head until he died

After this operation, he participated in the bombing of the railways to disrupt the activities of the British army in Palestine, and in July 1947, he partially destroyed the railway bridge over Nahal Taninim near Binyamina, and this railway linked the coastal Palestinian city of Haifa and Cairo.

An Egyptian train was blown up before it reached Haifa.

In March 1948, the Haganah gangs received information about a train from Egypt that was supposed to arrive in Haifa with armed Egyptian volunteers hiding in its cars, and they were supposed to help the Arabs in the battle for the city, but the Israeli officer and his friends blew up this train as well.

In another work, he participated in the bombing of a cinema that was used by the British army near Bardes Hanna during the 1948 war.

Amitsur served in the Alexandroni Brigade and later moved to the Golani Brigade, and participated in the occupation of the Egyptian city of Eilat.

After his retirement from the Israeli army, he returned to the “Benyamina” settlement, where his parents’ farm is.

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