Thursday, February 12, 1970.. On that day, the Meteorological Authority warned citizens of an unprecedented cold wave, but hundreds of morning shift workers were on their way to the Abu Zaabal Iron Factory, exchanging talk about the recent heroic achievements of the Egyptian army on the front during the battles of the War of Attrition. Some of them were also busy talking about their plans to spend Eid al-Adha, which was due in 4 days, and their joy at receiving the “Eid bonus” after the end of their shift. The workers arrived at the factory, each one of them put on the blue “overalls” and headed towards the workshops and hangars. At exactly a quarter past eight, the roaring sounds of two Israeli Phantom planes headed towards the factory resounded. Before the workers could recover from the shock, two missiles and a large number of napalm bombs fell over their heads. Within seconds, the factory buildings were destroyed, flames rose, a waterfall of blood poured out, and limbs were scattered everywhere. Some may think that the passage of 50 years since the incident has made it forgotten.. But the truth is that this tragic scene will remain Rooted in the minds of those who lived it and see its details for their children and grandchildren.. The blood of the martyrs is an eternal right that refuses to be forgotten.
At a distance of 18 km from Cairo, lies the village of Abu Zaabal, the largest residential and industrial complex in the Khanka Center. The area was formerly called "Al-Quseir" until the last days of the Mamluks, then it was called "Abu Zaabal" because of the cotton trees that the area was famous for growing. History mentions the people of the area's fierce resistance to the soldiers of the French campaign. Abu Zaabal remained an agricultural village until 1827 AD when Muhammad Ali Pasha chose it to establish a large number of schools such as the School of Medicine, which today has become "Qasr Al-Aini". The first station for the British Marconi Radio was also established there, which the Egyptian government granted in September 1932 the right to establish a radio station, 55% of whose shares would be owned by Egyptians. In 1946, the National Company factory was established in Abu Zaabal to produce iron from scrap with a capital of 120 thousand pounds, and it owned a furnace The "Sumner Martin" type, the first of its kind in the entire East, was nationalized in the sixties and became a public sector company affiliated with the National Company for Metal Industries. The Abu Zaabal factory was the largest iron and steel factory in the Middle East, and its production covered the local market, with the surplus being exported abroad. It is located on an area of 106 acres, divided into 50 acres for the rolling mill, 50 acres for the furnaces and warehouses, and 6 acres for the sports club. The first time: The Israeli aggression on the Abu Zaabal area began 14 years before the factory bombing incident, specifically on November 1, 1956, during the tripartite aggression, when the enemy forces destroyed a number of vital institutions in Cairo, coinciding with the invasion of Sinai and the attack on Port Said and the Canal Zone. Among the most prominent places that were bombed was the main radio transmission station in Abu Zaabal, which was bombed and the Egyptian radio stopped. On the same day, Abu Zaabal prison was bombed next to the radio transmission stations, and Lieutenant Colonel Youssef Abbas Muhammad Suleiman was the warden of Abu Zaabal prison. Zaabal had a chance to save his life and escape the bombing, but he insisted on securing the exit of the prisoners first during the heavy raids on the prison because keeping the prisoners inside meant their inevitable death. He continued his work for about 6 hours until he succeeded in securing the exit of all the prisoners. Before he escaped, he was hit by a shell and was transferred to the hospital, but he was martyred that day. The state honored his name by naming one of the main streets in Nasr City after him.
Al-Shat Ambush
With the start of the War of Attrition, the Egyptian operations succeeded in inflicting heavy losses on the Israeli forces, and the heroics are difficult to count, starting with the Battle of Ras Al-Esh, then the battles of the Air Force and the artillery battles and the sinking of the Israeli naval destroyer Eilat and the destruction of the Kentage driller and other wonderful heroics. With the beginning of January 1970, it was clear to the Israeli leadership that the stages of counter-attrition were unable to achieve their goals, so they began to resort to a plan that involved using the Israeli Air Force to bomb the Egyptian interior more intensively to increase the psychological pressure on the Egyptian people and push them to revolt against their leadership. The reliance was The largest of the modern American Phantom fighters that Israel obtained and actually entered service as of September 1969, and Golda Meir, the Prime Minister of Israel, stated to the Financial Times on July 6, 1970 that her planes were dropping a thousand bombs on the Egyptians every day. One of the most important ambushes carried out during this period was the Shatt ambush on February 11, 1970, which caused heavy losses on the Israeli side. A tank and three vehicles were destroyed, 18 soldiers were killed, and two soldiers were captured. The Israeli response came hours later through the Abu Zaabal factory massacre, the "waterfall of blood". The factory employed 2,600 workers and its only production was scrap iron and its conversion into reinforced iron rods. At the time, the factory produced about 75,000 tons of reinforced iron annually. Most of the workers were residents of Abu Zaabal village and went on foot or by bicycle. A small number of residents of distant areas came in the factory's buses or by train. Fate decreed that the train would arrive late on the day of the incident, as if its driver knew what awaited its passengers, who arrived about half an hour after their scheduled time. Two Israeli Phantom aircraft attacked the factory at 8:15 a.m. on February 12, 1970, minutes after the start of the first shift. One of the missiles directly hit the maintenance and repair workshop, which led to It resulted in the martyrdom and injury of a large number, and another missile hit the transformer station in the factory and part of the rolling unit, and from the force of the explosion the iron molds prepared for rolling were shattered and turned into deadly shrapnel, and the injured and the bodies of the martyrs were transferred to the Khanka Central, Al-Marg and Heliopolis hospitals, and the final death toll was 83 martyrs and 150 wounded, about half of whom suffered permanent disabilities. Jaafar Al-Khabouri Weekly Newspaper
