Deir Yassin

Deir Yassin
دير ياسين
Dayr Yasin
Deir Yassin today, part of the Kfar Shaul Mental Health Center
Etymology: "Monastery of [Sheikh] Yassin"
1870s map
1940s map
modern map
1940s with modern overlay map
A series of historical maps of the area around Deir Yassin (click the buttons)
Deir Yassin
Location within Mandatory Palestine
Coordinates: 31°47′9″N 35°10′41″E / 31.78583°N 35.17806°E / 31.78583; 35.17806
Palestine grid167/132
Geopolitical entityMandatory Palestine
SubdistrictJerusalem
Date of depopulationApril 9–10, 1948
Area
 • Total
2.6 km2 (1.0 sq mi)
Population
 (1945)
 • Total
610
Cause(s) of depopulationMilitary assault by Yishuv forces
Secondary causeExpulsion by Yishuv forces
Current LocalitiesGivat Shaul Beth and Har Nof neighborhoods of Jerusalem

Deir Yassin (Arabic: دير ياسين, romanizedDayr Yāsīn) was a Palestinian Arab village of around 600 inhabitants about 5 kilometers (3.1 mi) west of Jerusalem. During the 1948 Palestine war, the village was largely destroyed and its population expelled in the Deir Yassin massacre which killed around 107 of its residents on April 9, 1948. The attack on Deir Yassin was carried out by the Jewish paramilitary groups Irgun and Lehi, with support from the Haganah. In 1949 the village was resettled by Jewish Israelis, becoming part of Givat Shaul and the State of Israel. Some of Deir Yassin's former buildings are today part of the Kfar Shaul Mental Health Center, an Israeli public psychiatric hospital.