The Qibya massacre occurred during Operation Shoshana, a reprisal operation that occurred in October 1953 when Israeli troops under Ariel Sharon attacked the village of Qibya in the West Bank, which was then under Jordan's control, and killed Palestinian civilians.

Reprisal operations were raids carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in the 1950s and 1960s in response to frequent fedayeen attacks during which armed Arab militants infiltrated Israel from Syria, Egypt, and Jordan to carry out attacks on Israeli civilians and soldiers. Most of the reprisal operations followed raids that resulted in Israeli fatalities. The goal of these operations – from the perspective of Israeli officials – was to create deterrence and prevent future attacks. Two other factors behind the raids were restoring public morale and training newly formed army units. A number of these operations involved attacking villages and Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, including the 1953 Qibya massacre.