Two massacres were committed at Sa'sa' by Haganah forces in 1948: one in mid-February and another at the end of October. On 15 February, a Palmach force from the third Battalion raided the village. Battalion commander Moshe Kelman had orders to "blow up twenty houses and kill the largest possible number of fighters." The attackers stormed the village during the night, placed explosive charges in a number of houses and activated the detonators. The result was that ten houses were wholly or partially destroyed and "tens" of people were killed. 11 villagers were killed (5 of them small children) and 3 wounded, that 3 houses were completely demolished, and that 11 others were badly damaged. The second massacre was perpetrated on 30 October, at the time that the village was occupied, acts of "mass murder" were committed in the village. Villagers interviewed said that some of them had fled on the morning before its occupation after seeing an Israeli plane circling and bombing Safsaf and Jish and hearing the sound of gunfire all night. Yet others apparently fled on hearing of the atrocities committed at Safsaf. The settlement of Sasa established in 1949, lies on the village site. Some of the old olive trees remain, and a number of walls and houses still stand used by the settlement.