Bonaparte and his Army of Egypt, having…

Bonaparte and his Army of Egypt, having captured Gaza, move northward to take the stronghold at Jaffa.

On March 7, within three days of their arrival, the French overwhelm the fort, taking prisoner some forty-five hundred defenders, many of them Albanians.

These would ordinarily have received parole, but Bonaparte discovers that most of them had previously given their word not to fight again and had been released after El Arish.

Furious, he consults his commanders and, after a week of deliberation, the decision is made to execute the garrison and fourteen hundred prisoners by bayonet or drowning to save bullets.

Men, women and children are robbed and murdered for three days.

Many more will die in an epidemic of bubonic plague that breaks out soon afterwards.