The village was attacked during the evening of October 29 and a fierce battle lasted until 7 AM the next morning. The village defenders inflicted heavy casualties to the attackers.
Safsaf was the first village to fall in Operation Hiram.
Yosef Nachmani, a high-ranking member of Haganah and the director of the offices of the Jewish National Fund wrote:
"The acts of cruelty committed by our soldiers. After they went into Safsaf, the village and its people raised a white flag. They separated the men from the women, tied the hands of some 50 to 60 peasants and shot and killed them, burying them in a single hole. They also raped a number of the women from the village. ..In Salha, which raised a white flag, they carried out a real massacre, killing men and women, about 60 to 70 people. Where did they find such a degree of cruelty like that of the Nazis? They learned from them."