" 
 :::::::As I said earlier, I will defer instinctively to whatever Pluto and yourself agree to. I have no case to prove. The problem is that Milstein says residents of Hirbet-Zakariya fled (making this the first Arab village to be abandoned by its inhabitants in the War of Independence). Small HISH and Palmach units seized the village and ""Yellow Hill,"" while Arabs who attempted to tend fields near the block were chased off by gunfire.  
 :::::::I.e. Villagers fled, and the village was occupied. It suffered no attack from Jews. It became a key defensive bastion for months, and was attacked by Arabs. A month later (Jan 14) Jewish spotters were using the top of the mosque at Zakariya as an observation post, and upper houses were intact (Milstein 1997 vol.2 p.344) 
 :::::::Laurens says the the village was 'destroyed' by the Jews in December. The verb 'détruire' in French, when used of buildings, refers to 'razing to the ground' 'burning down'. Milstein contradicts this - the village was empty, abandoned when its buildings and mosque were occupied by the Palmach in December, without fight. So this is a source contradiction if Laurens is alluding to Khirbet-Zakariya, since Milstein does not mention any destruction or damage; to the contrary. They took it intact in Milstein, whereas they laid waste to it in Laurens. The inference both Pluto and you make is legitimate, but it makes Laurens out to be nodding, which is quite possible. There is no certainty on this, however, because Milstein mentions an assault on a Bedouin encampment earlier than both the Convoy of 10 incident and the Zakariya occupation. Since this is a consensual thing, if the consensus allows this inference to be made, and thinks the source contradiction unproblematical, I won't oppose the elision of Laurens on this. But at the same time, I think, since we now have Milstein, that we should exploit this opportunity to form an event time-line of the background battles, from the Bedouin incident, to the Convoy of 10, Zakariya in December, and the successive conflicts from January to May, simply listing the events. The reader can make up his mind.  "