On the night of 18–19 December 1947, the Palmach conducted a raid on al-Khisas with orders calling for "hitting adult the adult males" and "killing adult the adult males in the palace of the Emir Faur", which was thought to hide a man responsible for shooting a resident of kibbutz Ma'ayan Baruch in revenge for the shooting of a Palestinian a few days earlier. They blew up Faur's house and a neighbouring house, killing many occupants including women and children. According to Ben-Gurion, the raid was unauthorised. Local Jewish leaders and Arab affairs experts had tried to prevent the raid, but had been overridden by Yigal Allon. Afterwards the Political Department of the Jewish Agency criticized the attack and Yosef Sapir of the Defence Committee called for the punishment of those responsible, but no action was taken. Following the raid a large part of the residents left their homes.