'Azazme

A Bedouin tribe whose grazing territory used to be the desert around the wells at El Auja and Bir Ain on the border between Israel and Egypt.

In 1948 the 'Azazme numbered around 3,500.^[1] During 1950 the entire tribe was driven from the area around El Auja. In a series of raids the IDF burnt tents and shot at anyone approaching the wells. The IAF was used to strafe encampments.^[2] On 28 September 1953 the IDF established the kibbutz Ktzi'ot on 'Azazme land. A UN investigation into the murder of eleven Israelis at Scorpion Pass, 17 March 1954, found that the killings were committed by men from the 'Azazme who had joined a group know as the Black Hand gang, based at Qussaima. Despite the evidence that the attackers came from across the Egyptian border the IDF launched a reprisal raid against Nahalin in the West Bank.^[3][4]

References

1. ^ Burns, Lieutenant-General E.L.M. (1962) Between Arab and Israeli. George G. Harrap. Pages 92, 93
2. ^ Morris, Benny (1993) Israel's Border Wars, 1949 - 1956. Arab Infiltration, Israeli Retaliation, and the Countdown to the Suez War. Oxford University Press, ISBN 0 19 827850 0. Pages 153-157.
3. ^ Love, Kennett (1969) Suez. The twice-fought war. Longman. ISBN 0 582 12721 1. Pages 11, 62, 109.
4. ^ Morris, Benny (1993) Israel's Border Wars, 1949 - 1956. Arab Infiltration, Israeli Retaliation, and the Countdown to the Suez War. Oxford University Press, ISBN 0 19 827850 0. Page 64.