Jordan–Israel Mixed Armistice Commission
At the closing of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, on 3 April 1949, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan signed a truce with Israel called the 1949 Armistice Agreements.
The HKJ/IMAC was the organisation which monitored the Jordan/Israel truce agreement, the HJK/IMAC Headquarters was located in Jerusalem close to the Green Line and, through close liaison with the UNTSO headquarters in Government House, Jerusalem, was charged with supervising the truce, investigating border incidents, and taking remedial action to prevent the recurrence of such incidents along the Jordan/Israel Green Line.
The new agreement stipulated that instructions would be given to all local authorities and commanders to-strengthen measures to ensure the prevention of all illegal crossings of the demarcation line.
It was also provided that firing would he reduced to a strict minimum; that it would be prohibited during the day-time on people who had crossed the demarcation line, unless they resisted arrest.
A few days after that new agreement had come into force, the Jordanians captured an Israel driving-school vehicle which had made an apparently strange mistake in leaving the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway and crossing the demarcation line in very difficult terrain in the Latrun area.
The Jordanians having delayed the return of the three soldiers, Israel announced on 8 January 1953 that the new agreement to reduce and solve incidents was null and void.
On 22 January 1953, the local commander's agreement for the prevention and settlement of minor incidents, particularly the crossing of the line by infiltrators or by flocks, came to an end.
At the same time new powers had been granted to local judges to enable them to take firmer measures against those who grazed their flocks too close to the border or cultivated beyond the UN line of demarcation.
Bedouin tribes living east of the Wadi Araba in the southern part of Jordan had been warned to stay back from the frontier area.
[6] The HKJIMAC condemned Israel expelling some 200 inhabitants of the village of Wadi Fukin and sending them across the Armistice Agreement lines on 15 July 1949.
The lower part of the house which had been built into the side of the hill, was still partially intact, although bullet holes pockmarked the walls and doors.
The fathers' version of events was that on hearing a blast, this was his neighbor's house being demolished by explosive, just seconds before the wall of his own home was blown in.
"They were sprawled about the room their bodies riddled by bullets and grenade fragments".Commander Hutchison then collected up the available evidence; there was abandoned demolition charges bearing the Israeli markings.
Let those who would know, (know) BEWARE".The United Nations Truce Supervision Organization issued a condemnation to Israel for the "serious breach of the General Armistice Agreement" in the Beit Jalla reprisal raid.
After studying the evidence thus collected, my predecessor, General Riley, in a report to the Security Council on the violation of the cease-fire [S/3607], stated that it appeared impossible to determine who fired the first shot.
[4] On 25, 26 and 27 May 1953, the two parties submitted complaints alleging violation of the General Armistice Agreement by civilians and military personnel in the Al-Dawayima area.
The same night, armed Jordanians attacked a home in Beit Nabala, killing a woman and wounding her husband and two children.
[4] 11 August 1953, Israel military forces using demolition mines, bangalore torpedoes, 2-inch mortars, machine-guns and small arms attacked the villages of Idna, Surif and Wadi Fukin, inflicting casualties among the inhabitants and destroying dwellings.
The Mixed Armistice Commission has held Jordan responsible for this act of violence which caused no loss of life and relatively little damage, as the train was made up of empty tank cars.
14 15 October 1953: Qibya massacre The crossing of the demarcation line by a force approximating one half of a fully equipped battalion from the Israel regular army.
Into Qibya village, to attack the inhabitants by firing from automatic weapons, throwing grenades, and using Bangalore torpedoes together with TNT explosive.
Resulting in the murder of forty-two lives (later increased to 53) including men, women [and] children, and the wounding of fifteen persons and the damage of a police car, [and] at the same time, the crossing of a part of the same group into Shuqba village, [are] a breach of article III, para-graph 2 of the General Armistice Agreement.
Bullet-riddled bodies near the doorways and multiple bullet hits on the doors of the demolished houses indicated that the inhabitants had been forced to remain inside until their homes were blown up over them.
Witnesses were uniform in describing their experience as a night of horror, during which Israel soldiers moved about in their village blowing up buildings, firing into doorways and windows with automatic weapons and throwing hand grenades.
A number of unexploded hand grenades, marked with Hebrew letters indicating recent Israel manufacture, and three bags of TNT were found in and about the village.
By the time the acting chairman of the Mixed Armistice Commission left Qibya, twenty-seven bodies had been dug from the rubble.
No evidence was introduced to indicate that Jordanians were guilty of this crime and on 18 February the Chairman voted against the Israeli draft resolution condemning Jordan.
The MAC investigation found that the claim could not be substantiated and that the attack was more likely to have been by Bedouin tribesman from within Israel and the Israeli complaint was not upheld.
Israel communications referring to alleged violations by Jordan of the General Armistice Agreement have been addressed to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, with the request that they should be circulated to the members of the Security Council.
The Chief of Staff of the Truce Supervision Organization in Jerusalem has been informed of such alleged violations of the General Armistice Agreement only on receiving from New York a copy of the Security Council document.
