Golda Meir, 6 May, 1948, after a visit to ethnically-cleansed Haifa:
"It is a dreadful thing to see the dead city. Next to the port I found children, women, the old, waiting for a way to leave. I entered the houses, there were houses where the coffee and pita bread were left on the table, and I could not avoid [thinking] that this, indeed, had been the picture in many Jewish towns [i.e., in Europe, during World War II]"
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On 21-22 April, Haifa was officially taken by Zionist forces. By mid-May, only 4,000 Arabs were still in Haifa, out of the pre-war population of about 65,000. They were rounded-up in the Wadi Nisnas ghetto.
Reports of the fall of Haifa spread quickly all across the country.