On October 28, 1948, the Arab town al-Dawayima (also spelt Dawaymeh) was conquered during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war by the 89th Commando Battalion which was composed of former Irgun and Lehi forces. They encountered only "light resistance" from the villagers, whose core clan, the Ahdibs, traced their origins to the Muslim conquest of Palestine in the seventh century. Dawayima was situated a few kilometres West of Hebron. It had a population of six thousand people, Some four thousand Arab refugees had taken refuge in the village prior to the massacre. The Haganah intelligence service (HIS) considered the village to be 'very friendly'.