Reading on -
The attack on Deir Yassin took place a few months after the United Nations had
proposed that Palestine be divided into an Arab state and a Jewish one. The Arabs rejected the proposal, and civil war broke out.
In the months leading up to the end of British rule, in a phase of the civil war known as "The Battle of [the] Roads", the
Arab League-sponsored
Arab Liberation Army (ALA)—composed of Palestinians and other Arabs—attacked Jewish traffic on major roads in an effort to isolate the Jewish communities from each other.
[13] The ALA managed to seize several strategic vantage points along the highway between Jerusalem and
Tel Aviv—Jerusalem's sole supply route and link to the western side of the city (where 16 percent of all Jews in Palestine lived)—and began firing on convoys traveling to the city. By March 1948, the road was cut off and Jerusalem was under siege. In response, the Haganah launched
Operation Nachshon to break the siege. On April 6, in an effort to secure strategic positions, the Haganah and its strike force, the
Palmach, attacked
al-Qastal, a village two kilometers north of Deir Yassin overlooking the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway.
This happened in the context of a 'civil war' and an apology was made to Jordan.
Like in the 80's in Jerusalem when the Baptist Church was burned down by Jewish extremists and the Jews were so embarrassed that they financed the rebuilding.