1948 Arab–Israeli War

1948 Arab-Israeli War Part of the Arab-Israeli conflict Captain Avraham ("Bren") Adan raising the Ink Flag at Umm Rashrash (a site now in Eilat), marking the end of the war.[1] Date 15 May 1948 – 7 January 1949 Armistice agreements ended on July 20, 1949 Location Israel Result Israeli victory, tactical and strategic Arab failure, Armistice Agreements Territorial changes State of Israel established from captured territories, Jordanian occupation of West Bank, Egyptian occupation of the Gaza Strip Belligerents  Israel (IDF). Before 26 May 1948: Jewish paramilitary organizations (Haganah, Irgun, Lehi, Palmach, Foreign Volunteers) Egypt Anglo-Egyptian Sudan[2][3][4]  Syria  Jordan  Lebanon Iraq Saudi Arabia[5] Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen [6] Holy War Army Arab Liberation Army Muslim Brotherhood Commanders and leaders David Ben-Gurion Chaim Weizmann Yigael Yadin Yaakov Dori David Shaltiel Isser Be'eri Moshe Dayan Yisrael Galili Yigal Allon Shimon Avidan Yitzhak Pundak Yisrael Amir John Bagot Glubb Norman Lash Habis al-Majali Hasan Salama  † Fawzi Al-Qawuqji Ahmed Ali al-Mwawi Haj Amin Al-Husseini King Farouk I Ahmad Ali al-Mwawi Muhammad Naguib Abdul Rahman Hassan Azzam Strength Israel: 29,677 initially rising to 115,000 by March 1949. This includes the entire military personnel count—both combat units and logistical units. Note that the entire Jewish population in Israel in May 1948 was 806,000. Egypt: 10,000 initially, rising to 20,000 Iraq: 3,000 initially, rising to 15,000 – 18,000 Syria: 2,500 – 5,000 Jordan: 8,000 – 12,000 Lebanon: 1,000[7] Saudi Arabia: 800–1,200 Arab Liberation Army: 3,500 - 6,000 These numbers include only the combat units sent to the former British Mandate of Palestine, not the entire military strength. Casualties and losses 6,373 KIA (about 4,000 troops and 2,400 civilians) 8,000 KIA[8][9]

1948 Arab–Israeli War (southern front) Kfar Darom – Nirim – Yad Mordechai – Negba – Pleshet – Nitzanim – An-Far – Be'erot Yitzhak – Death to the Invader – GYS – Avak – Yoav (Beit Hanoun – Separation Corridor – Beersheba – Naval battles) – Shmone – Assaf – Horev (Hill 86 – Bir Thamila – 'Auja – Sinai – Rafah) – Uvda

The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, known by Israelis as the War of Independence (Hebrew: מלחמת העצמאות‎, Milhemet HaAtzma'ut) or War of Liberation (Hebrew: מלחמת השחרור‎, Milhemet HaShihrur) and by the Arabs as the Catastrophe (Arabic: النكبة‎, al-Nakba), was the first in a series of wars fought between the newly declared State of Israel and its Arab neighbours in the long-running Arab-Israeli conflict.

The war commenced upon the termination of the British Mandate of Palestine in mid-May 1948, following a period of civil war in 1947–1948. After the Arab rejection of the 1947 UN General Assembly Resolution 181 that would have created an Arab state and a Jewish state side by side, five Arab states - Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria - attacked Israel. The fighting took place mostly on the former territory of the British Mandate and for a short time also in the Sinai Peninsula and southern Lebanon.^[10] The war concluded with the 1949 Armistice Agreements.

Background

Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, the Supreme War Council met at the Villa Dechavan in Sanremo, Italy, 18–26 April 1920 to settle the final terms of the peace treaty with Turkey.^[11] The decisions of the San Remo conference mainly confirmed those of the First Conference of London (February 1920), and broadly reaffirmed the terms of the Anglo-French Sykes-Picot Agreement of 16 May 1916 for the region's partition and the Balfour Declaration of 2 November 1917.^[12][13]

The San Remo Agreement stated that "the mandatories chosen by the Principal Allied Powers are: France for Syria and Great Britain for Mesopotamia and Palestine." The high contracting parties agreed further that the territorial boundaries of these regions would be "determined by the Principal Allied Powers".^[11]

In the case of Palestine, the borders were agreed between the British and French in two separate conventions: the Franco-British Convention of 23rd December 1920 on Certain Points Connected with the Mandates for Syria and the Lebanon, Palestine and Mesopotamia and the Agreement Between the British and the French Governments Respecting the Boundary Line Between Syria and Palestine from the Mediterranean to El Hammé, 1923.^[11]

On 24 July 1922, the League of Nations approved the terms of the British Mandate over Palestine and Transjordan. On 16 September the League formally approved a memorandum from Lord Balfour confirming the exemption of Transjordan from the clauses of the mandate concerning the creation of a Jewish national home and from the mandate's responsibility to facilitate Jewish immigration and land settlement.^[14]

In 1922 the population of Palestine consisted of approximately 589,200 Muslims, 83,800 Jews, 71,500 Christians and 7,600 others (1922 census^[15]). Gradually a large number of Jews immigrated to the area, most of whom were fleeing increasing persecution in Europe. This immigration and accompanying call for a Jewish state in Palestine drew opposition from local Arabs.

Under the leadership of Haj Amin al-Husayni, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, the local Arabs rebelled against the British and attacked the growing Jewish population repeatedly. These sporadic attacks began with the riots in Palestine of 1920 and Jaffa riots (or "Hurani Riots") of 1921. During the 1929 Palestine riots, 133 Jews were killed, 67 of them in Hebron, and 355 wounded. By the time the British intervened, 116 Arabs were also killed in the fighting and an unknown number wounded.

Arab revolt (1936–1939) and its aftermath

Main article: 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine

In the late 1920s and early 1930s several factions of Arab society became impatient with the internecine divisions and ineffectiveness of the Arab elite and engaged in grass-roots anti-British and anti-Zionist activism, organized by groups such as the Young Men's Muslim Association. There was also support for the growth in influence of the radical nationalist Independence Party (Hizb al-Istiqlal). Most of these initiatives were contained and defeated by notables in the pay of the Mandatory Administration, particularly the Mufti and his cousin Jamal al-Husayni.

The death of religious leader Shaykh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam at the hands of the British police near Jenin in November 1935 generated widespread outrage, and huge crowds accompanied Qassam's body to his grave in Haifa. A few months later a spontaneous Arab national general strike broke out. This lasted until October 1936. During the summer of that year thousands of Jewish-farmed acres and orchards were destroyed, Jews were attacked and killed, and some Jewish communities—such as those in Beisan and Acre—fled to safer areas.^[16]

The Peel Commission recommended the partition of the country into a Jewish state and an Arab state to be attached to Jordan. In the wake of the strike and the Commission, an armed uprising spread through the country. Over the next 18 months the British lost control of Jerusalem, Nablus, and Hebron. During this period from 1936–1939, known as the Great Arab Revolt or the "Great Uprising", British forces, supported by 6,000 armed Jewish auxiliary police,^[17] suppressed the widespread riots.

In another significant development during this time the British officer Charles Orde Wingate (who supported a Zionist revival for religious reasons^[18]) organized Special Night Squads composed of British soldiers and Haganah operatives, which "scored significant successes against the Arab rebels in the lower Galilee and in the Jezreel valley"^[19] by conducting raids on Arab villages. The squads were rumored to have used excessive and indiscriminate force, which has been cited by Israeli academic Anita Shapira.^[20] The Arabs were rumored to have also used excessive and indiscriminate force against Jewish farmers. The Haganah mobilized up to 20,000 policemen, field troops and night squads; the latter included Yigal Allon and Moshe Dayan. Significantly, from 1936 to 1945, whilst establishing collaborative security arrangements with the Jewish Agency for Israel, the British confiscated 13,200 firearms from Arabs and 521 weapons from Jews.^[21]

In assessing the overall impact of the revolt on subsequent events, Rashid Khalidi argues that its negative effects on Palestinian national leadership, social cohesion and military capabilities contributed to the outcome of 1948 because "when the Palestinians faced their most fateful challenge in 1947–49, they were still suffering from the British repression of 1936–39, and were in effect without a unified leadership. Indeed, it might be argued that they were virtually without any leadership at all".^[22]

The Arab attacks on the Jewish population had three lasting effects. First, they led to the further development of Jewish underground militias, primarily the Haganah ("The Defense"), which were to prove decisive in 1948. Secondly, the attacks solidified general sentiment that the two communities could not be reconciled, and the idea of partition was born. Thirdly, the British responded to Arab opposition with the White Paper of 1939, which severely restricted Jewish immigration. However, with the advent of World War II, even this reduced immigration quota was not reached. The White Paper policy also radicalised segments of the Jewish population, who after the war would no longer cooperate with the British.

British Mandate administration and training of local Arabs and Jews

From 1936 onward, the British government facilitated the training, arming, recruitment and funding of a range of security and intelligence forces in collaboration with the Jewish Agency. These included the Guards (Notrim), which were divided into the 6,000 to 14,000-strong Jewish Supernumerary Police,^[23] the elite and highly mobile 6,000–8,000 strong Jewish Settlement Police^[24] and the Special Night Squads,^[25] the forerunner of Britain's Special Air Service regiments.^[26] There was also an elite strike force known as the FOSH, or Field Companies,^[24] with around 1,500 members, which were replaced by the larger HISH or Field Force in 1939.^[24][27] The SHAI, the intelligence and counter-espionage arm of the Haganah, was the forebear of Mossad.^[28]

The British had enlisted 6,000 Palestinian Arabs during World War II, and 1,700 Palestinian Arabs were recruited into the Trans-Jordanian Frontier Force.^[29] The British supplied officers such as John Bagot Glubb ("Glubb Pasha") for the Jordan's Arab Legion, and supplied the Egyptian army with trucks, rifles and aeroplanes. The British army therefore was intimately involved in the training of both sides for the coming conflict.

World War II

On 6 August 1940, Anthony Eden, the British Secretary of State for War, informed Parliament that the Cabinet had decided to recruit Arab and Jewish units as battalions of the Royal East Kent Regiment (the "Buffs").^[30] At a luncheon with Chaim Weizmann on 3 September, Winston Churchill approved the large-scale recruitment of Jewish forces in Palestine and the training of their officers. A further 10,000 men (no more than 3,000 from Palestine) were to be recruited to Jewish units in the British Army for training in the United Kingdom.

Faced with Field Marshal Rommel's advance in Egypt, the British government decided on 15 April 1941 that the 10,000 Jews dispersed in the single defence companies of the Buffs should be prepared for war service at the battalion level and that another 10,000 should also be mobilized along with 6,000 Supernumerary Police and 40,000 to 50,000 home guard. The plans were approved by Field Marshall John Dill. The Special Operations Executive (SOE) in Cairo approved a Haganah proposal for guerrilla activities in northern Palestine led by the Palmach arm of the Haganah, as part of which Yitzhak Sadeh devised Plan North for an armed enclave in the Carmel range from which the Yishuv could defend the region and from which they could attack German communications and supply lines, if necessary. British intelligence also trained a small radio network under Moshe Dayan to act as spy cells in the event of a German invasion.^[31]

After much hesitation, on 3 July 1944, the British government consented to the establishment of a Jewish Brigade with hand-picked Jewish and also non-Jewish senior officers. On 20 September 1944 an official communiqué by the War Office announced the formation of the Jewish Brigade Group of the British Army. The Zionist flag was officially approved as its standard. It included more than 5,000 Jewish volunteers from Palestine organized into three infantry battalions and several supporting units.^[32]

As soon as the war ended, British policy reverted to that of the period immediately before the war. Arms were confiscated, and some Haganah members were arrested and tried—one notable case being that of Eliahu Sacharoff, who received a sentence of seven years' imprisonment for possession of two stolen firearms cartridges (stolen from an army consignment during wartime).^[33]

Twilight of colonial rule in the region

Meanwhile, many of the surrounding Arab nations were also emerging from colonial rule. Transjordan, under the Hashemite ruler Abdullah I, gained independence from Britain in 1946 and was called Jordan, but it remained under heavy British influence. Egypt, while nominally independent, signed the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936 that included provisions by which Britain would maintain a garrison of troops on the Suez Canal. From 1945 on, Egypt attempted to renegotiate the terms of this treaty, which was viewed as a humiliating vestige of colonialism. Lebanon became an independent state in 1943, but French troops would not withdraw until 1946, the same year that Syria won its independence from France.

In 1945, at British prompting, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Transjordan, and Yemen formed the Arab League to coordinate policy between the Arab states. Iraq and Transjordan coordinated policies closely, signing a mutual defence treaty, while Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia feared that Transjordan would annex part or all of Palestine, and use it as a basis to attack or undermine Syria, Lebanon, and the Hijaz.

UN Partition Plan

Proposed separation of Palestine.

On 29 November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly approved a plan, UN General Assembly Resolution 181, to resolve the Arab-Jewish conflict by partitioning Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab. Each state would comprise three major sections, linked by extraterritorial crossroads; the Arab state would also have an enclave at Jaffa. With about 32% of the population, the Jews would get 56% of the territory, an area that contained 499,000 Jews and 438,000 Arabs, though most of this territory was in the inhospitable Negev Desert in the south. The Palestinian Arabs would get 42% of the land, which had a population of 818,000 Palestinian Arabs and 10,000 Jews. In consideration of its religious significance, the Jerusalem area, including Bethlehem, with 100,000 Jews and an equal number of Palestinian Arabs, was to become a Corpus Separatum, to be administered by the UN.^[34]

The Jewish leadership accepted the partition plan as "the indispensable minimum,"^[35] glad to gain international recognition but sorry that they did not receive more.^[36]

Arguing that the partition plan was unfair to the Arabs with regard to the population balance at that time, the representatives of the Palestinian Arabs and the Arab League firmly opposed the UN action and even rejected its authority to involve itself in the entire matter.^[37] They upheld "that the rule of Palestine should revert to its inhabitants, in accordance with the provisions of [...] the Charter of the United Nations."^[38] According to Article 73b of the Charter, the UN should develop self-government of the peoples in a territory under its administration.

1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine

1948 Palestinian exodus Main articles 1948 Palestinian exodus 1947-48 civil war 1948 Arab-Israeli War The 1948 War Causes of the exodus Depopulated areas Nakba Day Palestine refugee camps Palestinian refugee Palestinian right of return Present absentee Transfer Committee Resolution 194 Background British Mandate of Palestine Israel's declaration of independence Israeli-Palestinian conflict history New Historians Palestine · Plan Dalet 1947 partition plan · UNRWA Key incidents Battle of Haifa Deir Yassin massacre Exodus from Lydda Notable writers Aref al-Aref · Yoav Gelber Efraim Karsh · Walid Khalidi Nur Masalha · Benny Morris Ilan Pappe · Tom Segev Avraham Sela · Avi Shlaim Related categories/lists Depopulated villages category List of depopulated villages Related templates Palestinians

In the immediate aftermath of the United Nations' approval of the Partition plan, the explosions of joy amongst the Jewish community were counterbalanced by the expressions of discontent amongst the Arab community. Soon thereafter, violence broke out and became more prevalent. Murders, reprisals, and counter-reprisals killed dozens on both sides.

Between December 1947 to January 1948, it was estimated that nearly 1000 people had been killed and 2000 injured.^[39] By the end of March, the figure had risen to 2,000 dead and 4,000 wounded.^[40] These figures correspond to an average of more than 100 deaths and 200 casualties per week in a population of 2,000,000.

From January onwards, operations became more militaristic, with the intervention into Palestine of a number of Arab Liberation Army regiments which divided up around the different coastal towns and reinforced Galilee and Samaria.^[41] Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni came from Egypt with several hundred men of the Army of the Holy War. At the time, military assessments were that the Palestinian Arabs were incapable of beating the Zionists.^[42]

Having recruited a few thousand volunteers, al-Husayni organized the blockade of the 100,000 Jewish residents of Jerusalem.^[43] To counter this, the Yishuv authorities tried to supply the city with convoys of up to 100 armoured vehicles, but the operation became more and more impractical, and more and more died in this process. By March, Al-Hussayni's tactic had paid off. Almost all of Haganah's armoured vehicles had been destroyed, the blockade remained in full operation, and hundreds of Haganah members who tried to bring supplies to the city had been killed.^[44] The situation for those in the Jewish settlements in the highly isolated Negev and northern Galilee was even more critical.

Since the Jewish population was under strict orders to hold their dominions at all costs,^[45] the insecurity across the country affected the Arab population more visibly. Up to 100,000 Palestinian Arabs, chiefly those from the upper classes, left the country to seek refuge abroad or in Samaria.^[46]

This situation caused the U.S. to retract its support for the partition plan, thus encouraging the Arab League to believe that the Palestinian Arabs, reinforced by the Arab Liberation Army, could put an end to the partition plan. The British, on the other hand, decided on 7 February 1948 to support the annexation of the Arab part of Palestine by Jordan.^[47]

Although a certain level of doubt took hold amongst Yishuv supporters, their apparent defeats were caused more by their wait-and-see policy than by weakness. Ben-Gurion reorganized the Haganah and made conscription obligatory. Every Jewish man and woman in the country had to receive military training. Funds were gathered by Golda Meir from sympathizers in the United States, and Joseph Stalin supported the Zionist cause at the time, so Jewish representatives of Palestine were able to sign very important armament contracts in the East. Other Haganah agents retrieved stockpiles from World War II, which helped equip the army further. Operation Balak allowed arms and other equipment to be transported for the first time by the end of March.

Ben-Gurion assigned Yigael Yadin the responsibility to come up with a plan in preparation for the announced intervention of the Arab states. The result of his analysis was Plan Dalet, which was put in place from the start of April onwards. The adoption of Plan Dalet marked the second stage of the war, in which Haganah passed from the defensive to the offensive.

The first operation, named Operation Nachshon, consisted of lifting the blockade on Jerusalem. Fifteen hundred men from the Haganah's Givati Brigade and the Palmach's Harel brigade went about clearing the route to the city between 5 and 20 April.

The operation was successful, and enough foodstuffs to last two months were shipped to Jerusalem and distributed to the Jewish population.^[48] The success of the operation was added to by the death of al-Hussayni in combat. During this time, and beyond the command of Haganah or the framework of Plan Dalet, troops from Irgun and Lehi massacred more than 100 Arabs, mostly civilians, at Deir Yassin, a move that had an important impact on the Palestinian Arab population, and one that was criticised and lamented by all the principal Jewish authorities of the day.

At the same time, the first large-scale operation of the Arab Liberation Army ended in a debacle, with it being roundly defeated at Mishmar Ha'emek^[49] and losing its Druze allies through defection.^[50]

Within the framework for the expansion of Jewish territory foreseen by Plan Dalet, the forces of Haganah, Palmach, and Irgun intended to conquer mixed zones. Tiberias, Haifa, Safed, Beisan, Jaffa, and Acre fell, resulting in the flight of more than 250,000 Palestinian Arabs.^[51]

The British had essentially withdrawn their troops. The situation pushed the leaders of the neighboring Arab states to intervene, but their preparation was not finalized, and they could not assemble forces capable of turning the tide of the war. The majority of Palestinian Arab hopes lay with the Arab Legion of Jordan's monarch, Abdullah I, but he had no intention of creating a Palestinian Arab-run state, instead hoping to annex as much of the territory of the British Mandate of Palestine as he could. He was playing a double game, being just as much in contact with the Jewish authorities as with the Arab League.

In preparation for the offensive, Haganah successfully launched Operations Yiftah^[52] and Ben Ami^[53] to secure the Jewish settlements of Galilee, and Operation Kilshon, which created a united front around Jerusalem.

Golda Meir and Abdullah I met on 10 May to discuss the situation, but the meeting was inconclusive and their former agreements were not confirmed. On 13 May, the Arab Legion, backed by irregulars, attacked and took Kfar Etzion, killing 127 of the 131 Jewish defenders and massacring the prisoners.

Jordanian troops with captured Israelis after the Fall of Gush Etzion, May 1948

On 14 May 1948, David Ben-Gurion declared the independence of the state of Israel, and the war entered its second phase, with the intervention of several Arab states' armies the following day.

Political objectives

Yishuv

Benny Morris points out that the Yishuv's aims evolved during the war.^[54]

Initially, the aim was "simple and modest": to survive the assaults of the Palestinian Arabs and the Arab states. "The Zionist leaders deeply, genuinely, feared a Middle Eastern reenactment of the Holocaust, which had just ended; the Arabs' public rhetoric reinforced these fears". As the war progressed, the aim of expanding the Jewish state beyond the UN partition borders appeared: first to incorporate clusters of isolated Jewish settlements and later to add more territories to the state and give it defensible borders. A third and further aim that emerged among the political and military leaders after four or five months was to "reduce the size of Israel's prospective large and hostile Arab minority, seen as a potential powerful fifth column, by belligerency and expulsion."^[54]

King Abdullah I of Jordan

King Abdullah was the commander of the Arab Legion, the strongest Arab army involved in the war. The Arab Legion had about 10,000 soldiers, trained and commanded by British officers.

King Abdullah outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem, 29 May 1948

In 1946–1947, Abdullah said that he had no intention to "resist or impede the partition of Palestine and creation of a Jewish state."^[55] He supported the partition, intending that the West Bank area of the British Mandate allocated for Palestine be annexed to Jordan. Abdullah had secret meetings with the Jewish Agency (at which the future Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir was among the delegates) that reached an agreement of Jewish non-interference of Jordanian annexation of the West Bank (although Abdullah failed in his goal of acquiring an outlet to the Mediterranian sea through the Negev desert) and of Jordanian agreement not to attack the area of the Jewish state contained in the United Nations partition resolution (in which Jerusalem was given neither to the Arab nor the Jewish state, but was to be an internationally administered area.) In one stunning diplomatic coup, the strongest Arab army agreed not to attack the Jewish state.^[56] However, by 1948, the neighbouring Arab states pressured Abdullah into joining them in an "all-Arab military intervention" against the newly created State of Israel, which he used to restore his prestige in the Arab world, which had grown suspicious of his relatively good relationship with Western and Jewish leaders.^[55]

Abdullah's role in this war became substantial. He saw himself as the "supreme commander of the Arab forces" and "persuaded the Arab League to appoint him" to this position.^[57] Through his leadership, the Arabs fought the 1948 war to meet Abdullah's political goals. Abdullah kept his promise not to attack the Jewish state, and the Arab Legion was limited to defending Arab areas of Jerusalem and those parts of the designated Arab state that Jewish forces invaded.

Arab Higher Committee of Amin al-Husayni

Amin al-Husayni, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Chairman of the Arab Higher Committee, had collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II. In 1940, he asked the Axis Powers to acknowledge the Arab right "to settle the question of Jewish elements in Palestine and other Arab countries in accordance with the national and racial interests of the Arabs and along the lines similar to those used to solve the Jewish question in Germany and Italy."^[58] He spent the second half of World War II in Germany making radio broadcasts exhorting Muslims to ally with the Nazis in war against their common enemies. In one of these broadcasts, he said, "Arabs, arise as one man and fight for your sacred rights. Kill Jews wherever you find them. This pleases God, history, and religion. This saves your honor. God is with you."^[59][60]

At the beginning of 1948, al-Husayni was in exile in Egypt. The Mufti was involved in some of the high level negotiations between Arab leaders at a meeting held in Damascus in February 1948 to organize Palestinian Field Commands; however, the commanders of his Holy War Army, Hasan Salama and Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni, were allocated only the Lydda district and Jerusalem. This decision

"paved the way for an undermining of the Mufti's position among the Arab States. On 9 February, only four days after the Damascus meeting, a severe blow was suffered by the Mufti at the Arab League session in Cairo [where his demands for] the appointment of a Palestinian to the General Staff of the League, the formation of a Palestinian Provisional Government, the transfer of authority to local National Committees in areas evacuated by the British, a loan for administration in Palestine and appropriation of large sums to the Arab Higher Executive for Palestinians entitled to war damages [were all rejected]."^[61]

The Arab League blocked recruitment to the Mufti's forces,^[62] which collapsed following the death of his most charismatic commander, his cousin Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni, on 8 April.

Following rumours that King Abdullah was re-opening the bilateral negotiations with Israel that he had previously conducted in secret with the Jewish Agency, the Arab League, led by Egypt, decided to set up the All-Palestine Government in Gaza on 8 September under the nominal leadership of the Mufti. Avi Shlaim writes:

The decision to form the Government of All-Palestine in Gaza, and the feeble attempt to create armed forces under its control, furnished the members of the Arab League with the means of divesting themselves of direct responsibility for the prosecution of the war and of withdrawing their armies from Palestine with some protection against popular outcry. Whatever the long-term future of the Arab government of Palestine, its immediate purpose, as conceived by its Egyptian sponsors, was to provide a focal point of opposition to Abdullah and serve as an instrument for frustrating his ambition to federate the Arab regions with Jordan.^[63]

Abdullah regarded the attempt to revive the Mufti's Holy War Army as a challenge to his authority and on 3 October his Minister of Defence ordered all armed bodies operating in the areas controlled by the Arab Legion to be disbanded. Glubb Pasha carried out the order ruthlessly and efficiently.^[64]

Initial line-up of forces

Military assessments

Benny Morris has argued that although, by the end of 1947, the Palestinians "had a healthy and demoralising respect for the Yishuv's military power", they believed that in decades or centuries "the Jews, like the medieval crusader kingdoms, would ultimately be overcome by the Arab world".^[65]

On the eve of the war, the number of Arab troops likely to be committed to the war was about 23,000 (10,000 Egyptians, 4,500 Jordanians, 3,000 Iraqis, 3,000 Syrians, 2,000 ALA volunteers, 1,000 Lebanese and some Saudi Arabians), in addition to the irregular Palestinians already present. The Yishuv had 35,000 troops of the Haganah, 3,000 of Stern and Irgun and a few thousand armed settlers.^[66]

On 12 May, David Ben-Gurion was told by his chief military advisers, "who over-estimated the size of the Arab armies and the numbers and efficiency of the troops who would be committed", that Israel's chances of winning a war against the Arab states were only about even.^[67]

Yishuv forces

In November 1947, the Haganah was an underground paramilitary force that had existed as a highly organized, national force, since the riots of 1920–21, and throughout the riots of 1929, and Great Uprising of 1936–39^[68] It had a mobile force, the HISH, which had 2,000 full time fighters (men and women) and 10,000 reservists (all aged between 18 and 25) and an elite unit, the Palmach composed of 2,100 fighters and 1,000 reservists. The reservists trained 3–4 days a month and went back to civilian life the rest of the time. These mobile forces could rely on a garrison force, the HIM (Heil Mishmar, lit. Guard Corps), composed of people aged over 25. The Yishuv's total strength was around 35,000 with 15,000 to 18,000 fighters and a garrison force of roughly 20,000.^[69] The two clandestine groups Irgun and Lehi had 2,000–4,000 and 500–800 members, respectively. There were also several thousand men and women who had served in the British Army in World War II who did not serve in any of the underground militias but would provide valuable military experience during the war.^[70] Walid Khalidi says the Yishuv had the additional forces of the Jewish Settlement Police, numbering some 12,000, the Gadna Youth Battalions, and the armed settlers.^[71] Few of the units had been trained by December 1947.^[72]

In 1946, Ben-Gurion decided that the Yishuv would probably have to defend itself against both the Palestinian Arabs and neighbouring Arab states and accordingly began a "massive, covert arms acquisition campaign in the West". By September 1947 the Haganah had "10,489 rifles, 702 light machine-guns, 2,666 submachine guns, 186 medium machine-guns, 672 two-inch mortars and 92 three-inch (76 mm) mortars" and acquired many more during the first few months of hostilities. The Yishuv also had "a relatively advanced arms producing capacity", that between October 1947 and July 1948 "produced 3 million 9 mm bullets, 150,000 Mills grenades, 16,000 submachine guns (Sten Guns) and 210 three-inch (76 mm) mortars",^[73] along with a few "Davidka" homemade mortars that were highly inaccurate but had a spectacularly loud explosion that demoralized the enemy. Initially, the Haganah had no heavy machine guns, artillery, armored vehicles, anti-tank or anti-aircraft weapons,^[74] nor military aircraft or tanks.^[75]

On 5 December 1947, obligatory conscription was instituted for all men and women aged between 17 and 25. By end of March, 21,000 had been conscripted.^[76] On 30 March, the call-up was extended to men and single women aged between 26 to 35. Five days later, a General Mobilization order was issued for all men under 40.^[77]

Sources disagree about the amount of arms at the Yishuv's disposal at the end of the Mandate. According to Karsh before the arrival of arms shipments from Czechoslovakia as part of Operation Balak, there was roughly one weapon for every three fighters, and even the Palmach could arm only two out of every three of its active members.^[78] According to Collins and LaPierre, by April 1948, the Haganah had managed to accumulate only about 20,000 rifles and Sten guns for the 35,000 soldiers who existed on paper.^[79] According to Walid Khalidi "the arms at the disposal of these forces were plentiful".^[71] The one weapon of which there was no shortage was locally produced explosives.^[80]

Arab forces

There was no national military organisation in the Arab Palestinian community. There were two paramilitary youth organizations, the pro-Husayni Futuwa and the anti-Husayni Najjada ("auxiliary corps"). According to Karsh, these groups had 11,000–12,000 members,^[81] but according to Morris, the Najjada, which was based in Jaffa and had 2,000–3,000 members, was destroyed in the run-up to the 1948 war, during Husayni's attempt to seize control of it, and the Futuwa never numbered more than a few hundred.^[82] At the outbreak of the war, new local militia groups, the National Guard, mushroomed in towns and cities. Each was answerable to its local Arab National Committee.^[83]

In December, Abd al-Qadir Husseini arrived in Jerusalem with one hundred combatants who had trained in Syria and that would form the cadre of the Holy War Army. His forces were joined by a few hundred young villagers and veterans of the British army.^[84]

The equipment of the Palestinian forces was very poor. The British confiscated most of their arsenal during the 1936–39 rebellion and World War II.^[85] A report of 1942 by the Haganah intelligence service assessed the number of firearms at the disposal of the Palestinian at 50,000 [but] this was probably an overestimate^[86] or even "highly exaggerated".^[87]

The Arab Liberation Army (Jaysh al-Inqadh al-Arabi) had been set up by the Arab League. It was made up of around 6,000 volunteers, largely from Arab countries, and was led by Fawzi al-Qawuqji. Its officially allotted area was northern Palestine, including Samaria.

Jordan's Arab Legion was considered the most effective Arab force. Armed, trained and commanded by British officers, this 8,000–12,000 strong force was organised in four infantry/mechanised regiments supported by some 40 artillery pieces and 75 armoured cars. Until January 1948, it was reinforced by the 3,000-strong Transjordan Frontier Force.^[86] As many as 48 British officers served in the Arab Legion.^[88] Glubb Pasha, the commander of the Legion, organized his forces into four brigades as follows:

The Arab Legion joined the war in May 1948, but fought only in the areas that King Abdullah wanted to secure for Jordan: the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

The Jordanian forces were probably the best trained of all combatants. Other combatant forces lacked the ability to make strategic decisions and tactical maneuvers,^[93] as evidenced by positioning the fourth regiment at Latrun, which was abandoned by other combatants before the arrival of the Jordanian forces. In the later stages of the war, Latrun proved to be of extreme importance, and a decisive factor for Jerusalem's fate.

In 1948, Iraq had an army of 21,000 men in 12 brigades and the Iraqi Air Force had 100 planes, mostly British. Initially the Iraqis committed around 3,000 men^[94] to the war effort, including four infantry brigades, one armoured battalion and support personnel. These forces were to operate under Jordanian guidance^[95] During the first truce, the Iraqis increased their force to about 10,000.^[96] Ultimately, the Iraqi expeditionary force numbered around 15,000 to 18,000 men.^[97]

The first Iraqi forces to be deployed reached Jordan in April 1948 under the command of Gen. Nur ad-Din Mahmud. On 15 May, Iraqi engineers built a pontoon bridge across the Jordan River and attacked the Israeli settlement of Gesher with little success. Following this defeat, Iraqi forces moved into the Nablus-Jenin-Tulkarm strategic triangle, where they suffered heavy casualties in the Israeli attack on Jenin which began on 3 June, but they managed to hold on to their positions. Active Iraqi involvement in the war effectively ended at this point.^[98]

In 1948, Egypt was able to put a maximum of around 40,000 men into the field, 80% of its military-age male population being unfit for military service and its embryonic logistics system being limited in its ability to support ground forces deployed beyond its borders. Initially, an expeditionary force of 10,000 men was sent to Palestine under the command of Maj. Gen. Ahmed Ali al-Mwawi. This force consisted of five infantry battalions, one armoured battalion equipped with British Light Tank Mk VI and Matilda tanks, one battalion of sixteen 25-pounder guns, a battalion of eight 6-pounder guns and one medium-machine-gun battalion with supporting troops.

The Egyptian Air Force had over 30 Spitfires, 4 Hawker Hurricanes and 20 C47s modified into crude bombers.

By the time of the second truce, the Egyptians had 20,000 men in the field in thirteen battalions equipped with 135 tanks and 90 artillery pieces.^[99]

Syria had 12,000 soldiers at the beginning of the 1948 War, grouped into three infantry brigades and an armoured force of approximately battalion size. The Syrian Air Force had fifty planes, the 10 newest of which were World War II–generation models.

On 14 May Syria invaded Palestine with the 1st Infantry Brigade supported by a battalion of armoured cars, a company of French R 35 and R 37 tanks, an artillery battalion and other units. On 15–16 May they attacked the Israeli village Tzemah, which they captured, following a renewed offensive, on 18 May. The village was abandoned following the Syrian forces' defeat at the Deganias a few days later. Subsequently, the Syrians scored a victory at Mishmar HaYarden on 10 June, after which they reverted to a defensive posture, conducting only a few minor attacks on small, exposed Israeli settlements.^[100] The Lebanese army was the smallest of the Arab armies, consisting of only 3,500 soldiers.^[86] According to Gelber, in June 1947, Ben-Gurion "arrived at an agreement with the Maronite religious leadership in Lebanon that cost a few thousand pounds and kept Lebanon's army out of the War of Independence and the military Arab coalition."^[101] According to Rogan and Shlaim, a token force of 1,000 was committed to the invasion. It crossed into the northern Galilee and was repulsed by Israeli forces. Israel then invaded and occupied southern Lebanon until the end of the war.^[102]

Saudi Arabia sent a contingent of 800 men^[103]–1,200^[104] to fight with Egyptian and Jordanian forces.^[105]

Yemen also committed a small expeditionary force to the war effort.

British forces in Palestine

There were 100,000 British troops deployed in Palestine "in two ground forces divisions, two independent infantry brigades, two mechanized regiments, some artillery units and a number of RAF squadrons".^[106] The peak deployment was in July 1947, when 70,200 British troops were stationed in Palestine, supported by 1,277 civilian drivers and 28,155 civilian employees.^[107] British forces, however, were gradually withdrawn in 1948. British High Commissioner Cunningham left Palestine on May 14, 1948, the date of the official termination of the mandate,^[108] yet British forces overseeing the withdrawal remained in Palestine for several weeks thereafter, maintaining an enclave in and around Haifa and its port. Four Royal Air Force airmen were killed on May 22 when the Royal Egyptian Air Force struck RAF Ramat David, mistaking the airfield for one occupied by the Israeli Air Force.^[109][110] The last British soldiers left Palestine on June 30, 1948.^[111]

Intervention by Arab League countries

Five of the seven countries of the Arab League at that time, namely Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, backed by Saudi Arabian and Yemenite contingents invaded^[112] the territory of the former British Mandate of Palestine on the night of 14–15 May 1948. However, only the forces of Syria and Egypt invaded territory outside of the Arab section of the Partition Plan.^[113] The official motives for their intervention were set out in a statement^[114] of 15 May 1948 :

the only solution of the Palestine problem is the establishment of a unitary Palestinian State, in accordance with democratic principles, whereby its inhabitants will enjoy complete equality before the law, [and whereby] minorities will be assured of all the guarantees recognised in democratic constitutional countries ....

The main objection the Arab League had to the division of Palestine in UN Resolution 181 was that it did not respect the rights of its Arab inhabitants

in accordance with the provisions of the Covenant of the League of Nations and the Charter of the United Nations.

(...)

Security and order in Palestine have become disrupted. The Zionist aggression resulted in the exodus of more than a quarter of a million of its Arab inhabitants from their homes and in their taking refuge in the neighbouring Arab countries.

Nevertheless, some speeches were more aggressive. Azzam Pasha, the Arab League Secretary, declared on Cairo radio: "This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades."^[115]

According to Yoav Gelber, the Arab countries were "drawn into the war by the collapse of the Palestinian Arabs and the Arab Liberation Army [and] the Arab governments' primary goal was preventing the Palestinian Arabs' total ruin and the flooding of their own countries by more refugees. According to their own perception, had the invasion not taken place, there was no Arab force in Palestine capable of checking the Haganah's offensive".^[116]

"[Yishuv] perceived the peril of an Arab invasion as threatening its very existence. Having no real knowledge of the Arabs's true military capabilities, the Jews took Arab propaganda literally, preparing for the worst and reacting accordingly."^[116]

1948 Arab–Israeli War

First phase: 14 May–11 June 1948

Military operations from May 15--June 19, 1948 during Israeli War of 0,Independence. Symbols used in the map are NATO military symbols.

The British Mandate over Palestine was due to expire on 15 May, but Jewish leadership led by Ben-Gurion declared independence on 14 May (because 15 May was a Shabbat). The State of Israel declared itself as an independent nation, and was quickly recognized by the United States, Iran, the Soviet Union, and many other countries. Within hours, Arab forces invaded the infant state. In an official cablegram from the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States to the UN Secretary-General on 15 May 1948, the Arab states publicly proclaimed their aim of creating a "United State of Palestine" in place of the Jewish and Arab, two-state, UN Plan. They claimed the latter was invalid, as it was opposed by Palestine's Arab majority, and maintained that the absence of legal authority made it necessary to intervene to protect Arab lives and property.^[117]

Israel, the United States and the Soviet Union called the Arab states' entry into Israel illegal aggression, while UN Secretary-General Trygve Lie characterized it as "the first armed aggression which the world had seen since the end of the [Second World] War." China, meanwhile, broadly backed the Arab claims.

Two Egyptian columns with air, armored, and artillery cover entered southern Israel, but were met with fierce resistance from numerous settlements defended by their armed inhabitants and Haganah troopers. The Egyptians were stalled and took heavy casualties, while Israeli losses were comparatively light. These battles were delaying actions, designed to give the Haganah time to prepare for the Egyptian attack. The Haganah stopped the Egyptian offensive at Ad Halom, near Ashdod. Two Egyptian Air Force Spitfires bombed Tel Aviv. One of them was shot down and its pilot taken prisoner. However, the Egyptian Air Force continued its bombing raids over the city.

Numerous isolated Israeli settlement outposts in the Galilee were exposed to Arab attack on all sides, and had to rely on their own armories for defense. The hastily mobilized Israeli Army had to engage in offensive actions to remove Arab forces from key positions, block the advance of their columns, and rush to seal gaps in Israel's defenses.^[118] Over the next few days, approximately 1,000 Lebanese, 5,000 Syrian, 5,000 Iraqi, and 10,000 Egyptian troops (initial numbers) invaded the newly established state. Four thousand Jordanian troops invaded the Corpus separatum region encompassing Jerusalem and its environs, as well as areas designated as part of the Arab state by the UN partition plan. They were aided by corps of volunteers from Saudi Arabia, Libya and Yemen. The Arab nations gradually increased the number of troops by the thousands as the war later progressed (see table of "strength" near top of page). Both sides increased their manpower over the following months, but the Israeli advantage grew steadily as a result of the progressive mobilization of Israeli society and the influx of an average of 10,300 immigrants each month.

On 26 May 1948, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) was officially established, and the Haganah, Palmach and Irgun were incorporated into the army of the new Jewish state.

Jordanian artillery illuminate Jerusalem in 1948

As the war progressed, the IDF managed to field more troops than the Arab forces. By July 1948, the IDF had 63,000 troops; by early spring 1949, they had 115,000. The Arab armies had an estimated 40,000 troops in July 1948, rising to 55,000 in October 1948, and slightly more by the spring of 1949.

All Jewish aviation assets were placed under the control of the Sherut Avir (Air Service, known as the SA) in November 1947 and flying operations began in the following month from a small civil airport on the outskirts of Tel Aviv called Sde Dov, with the first ground support operation (in an RWD-13^[120]) taking place on 17 December. The Galilee Squadron was formed at Yavne'el in March 1948, and the Negev Squadron was formed at Nir-Am in April. By 10 May, when the SA suffered its first combat loss, there were three flying units: an air staff, maintenance facilities and logistics support. At the outbreak of the war on 15 May, the SA became the Israeli Air Force. With its fleet^[121] of light planes it was no match for Arab forces during the first few weeks of the war with its T-6s, Spitfires, C-47s and Avro Ansons. The main Arab losses were the result of RAF action in response to Egyptian raids on the British air base at Ramat David^[122] near Haifa on 22 May during which five Egyptian Spitfires were shot down. It was also during this time that the balance of air power began to swing in favor of the Israeli Air Force following the purchase of 25 Avia S-199s from Czechoslovakia, the first of which arrived in Israel on 20 May. This created the ironic situation of the young Jewish state using derivatives of the Bf-109 designed in Nazi Germany to help counter the British-designed Spitfires flown by Egypt. The first raid on an Arab capital followed on the night of 31 May/June 1 when three Israeli planes bombed Amman.^[123] By the fall of 1948, the IDF had achieved air superiority and had superior firepower and more knowledgeable personnel, many of whom had seen action in World War II.^[124] Israeli planes also bombed Arish, Gaza, Damascus, and Cairo.

The first mission of the IDF was to hold on against the Arab armies and stop them from destroying major Jewish settlements, until reinforcements and weapons arrived.

Israeli B-17 bombers of Sherut Avir, came to Israel from Czechoslovakia, bombing Egypt on their way to Israel. On May 19, Sherut Avir performed its first combat mission, when four planes attacked Egyptian armored column of 500 vehicles on its way to Ashdod. The Israeli planes dropped 70 kilogram bombs and strafed the column, although their machine guns jammed quickly. The Egyptians scattered, and had lost the initiative by the time they had regrouped. Israeli Givati Brigade troops then counterattacked and completely stopped the Egyptian offensive.^[125]

The heaviest fighting occurred in Jerusalem and on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv road, between Jordan's Arab Legion and the Israeli forces. Abdullah ordered Glubb Pasha, the commander of the Jordanian-led Arab Legion, to enter Jerusalem on 17 May, and heavy house-to-house fighting occurred between 19 May and 28 May, with the Arab Legion succeeding in expelling Israeli forces from the Arab quarters of Jerusalem as well as the Jewish Quarter of the Old City. All the Jewish inhabitants of the Old City were expelled by the Jordanians.^[126] Iraqi troops failed in attacks on Jewish settlements (the most notable battle was on Mishmar HaEmek), and instead took defensive positions around Jenin, Nablus, and Tulkarm. Israeli forces then captured two Arab villages and the city of Acre. Both sides took significant losses, but Iraqi losses were greater than those of the Israelis.^[127]

On 21 May, the Syrian army was blocked at Kibbutz Degania Alef in the north, where local militia reinforced by elements of the Carmeli Brigade halted Syrian armored forces with Molotov cocktails and a single PIAT. One tank that was disabled by Molotov cocktails and hand grenades still remains at the kibbutz. The remaining Syrian forces were driven off the next day with four "Napoleonchik" mountain guns—Israel's first use of artillery during the war.^[128]

On 23 May, Thomas C. Wasson, the Consul General for the US and a member of the UN Truce Commission was assassinated in West Jerusalem.

On 24 May, IDF forces at Latrun, consisting of the newly formed 7th Armoured Brigade (Israel) and a battalion of the Alexandroni Brigade, attacked the Arab Legion forces in Operation "Bin-Nun A" and on 1 June 1948 the same IDF forces again attacked Latrun Arab Legion forces in Operation Bin-Nun B. Both attacks failed, and both brigades suffered heavy casualties with a total of 168 killed, while the Jordanians lost about 20 killed.

On 2 June 1948, Palestinian Arab commander Hasan Salama was killed in the Battle of Ras al-Ein, north of Jaffa. The Israeli Air Force won its first aerial victory the day after. Egyptian planes had repeatedly bombed Tel Aviv with almost complete impunity, but Israeli Air Force pilot Modi Alon shot down two Egyptian planes over Tel Aviv on June 3.

During the following months, the Arab armies were stopped and driven back by the Israelis, as were Palestinian guerillas and ALA irregulars. The Israeli military then began to push into Arab territories and expand the size of its holdings.

First truce: 11 June–8 July 1948

Official UN mediator to Palestine, Count Folke Bernadotte, assassinated in September 1948 by the militant group Lehi.

The UN declared a truce on 29 May, which came into effect on 11 June and lasted 28 days. The ceasefire was overseen by UN mediator Folke Bernadotte and a team of UN Observers made up of army officers from Belgium, United States, Sweden and France.^[129] Bernadotte was voted in by the General Assembly to "assure the safety of the holy places, to safeguard the well being of the population, and to promote 'a peaceful adjustment of the future situation of Palestine'".^[130] The truce was designed to last 28 days and an arms embargo was declared with the intention that neither side would make any gains from the truce. Neither side respected the truce; both found ways around the restrictions placed on them. Both the Israelis and the Arabs used this time to improve their positions, a direct violation of the terms of the ceasefire. "The Arabs violated the truce by reinforcing their lines with fresh units and by preventing supplies from reaching isolated Israeli settlements; occasionally, they opened fire along the lines".^[131] The Israeli Defense Forces were able to acquire weapons from communist Czechoslovakia as well as improve training of forces and reorganization of the army during this time. Yitzhak Rabin, an IDF commander at the time of the war and later Israel's fifth Prime Minister, stated "[w]ithout the arms from Czechoslovakia... it is very doubtful whether we would have been able to conduct the war".^[132] As well as violating the arms and personnel embargo, they also sent fresh units to the front lines like the Arabs.^[131] The Israel army increased its manpower from approximately 30,000 or 35,000 men to almost 65,000 during the truce. They were also able to increase their arms supply to "more than twenty-five thousand rifles, five thousand machine guns, and more than fifty million bullets".^[131] As the truce commenced, a British officer stationed in Haifa stated that the four-week-long truce "would certainly be exploited by the Jews to continue military training and reorganization while the Arabs would waste [them] feuding over the future divisions of the spoils".^[131] This officer was correct for the Jews were able to reorganize and reequip while the Arabs became unprepared to return to combat.

After the truce was in place, Bernadotte began to address the issue of achieving a political settlement. The main obstacles in his opinion were "the Arab world's continued rejection of the existence of a Jewish state, whatever its borders; Israel's new 'philosophy', based on its increasing military strength, of ignoring the partition boundaries and conquering what additional territory it could; and the emerging Palestinian Arab refugee problem".^[131] Taking all the issues into account, Bernadotte presented a new partition plan. He proposed there be a Palestinian Arab state alongside Israel and that a "Union" "be established between the two sovereign states of Israel and Jordan (which now included the West Bank); that the Negev, or part of it, be included in the Arab state and that Western Galilee, or part of it, be included in Israel; that the whole of Jerusalem be part of the Arab state, with the Jewish areas enjoying municipal autonomy and that Lydda Airport and Haifa be 'free ports'—presumably free of Israeli or Arab sovereignty".^[131] Israel rejected the proposal, in particular the aspect of losing control of Jerusalem, but they did agree to extend the truce for another month. The Arabs rejected both the extension of the truce and the proposal.^[131] In September 1948, while pursuing his official duties, Bernadotte was assassinated in Jerusalem by the militant Zionist group Lehi.^{[133][134][135][136]} On 8 July, the day before the expiration of the truce, Egyptian General Naguib renewed the war by attacking the Negba position of Israel.^[137] As a result of this attack, Israel responded on 9 July by attacking on all three fronts. The fighting continued for ten days until the UN Security Council issued the Second Truce on 18 July.^[131]

Second phase: 8 – 18 July 1948

The fighting after the truce was dominated by large scale Israeli offensives and a defensive posture from the Arab side. Operation Danny was the most important Israeli offensive, aimed at securing and enlarging the corridor between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv by capturing the roadside cities Lod (Lydda) and Ramle. In a second planned stage of the operation the fortified positions of Latrun—overlooking the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway—and the city of Ramallah were also to be captured.

The second plan was Operation Dekel, which was aimed at capturing the lower Galilee including Nazareth. The third plan, to which fewer resources were allocated, Operation Kedem, was to secure the Old City of Jerusalem.^[138]

In the south, several offensives were launched, including Operation An-Far.

Operation Danny

The objectives of Operation Danny were to capture territory east of Tel Aviv and then to push inland and relieve the Jewish population and forces in Jerusalem. Lydda had become an important military center in the region, lending support to Arab military activities elsewhere, and Ramle was one of the main obstacles blocking Jewish transportation. Lydda was defended by a local militia of around 1,000 residents, with an Arab Legion contingent of 125-300.^[139] The IDF forces gathered to attack the city numbered around 8,000. It was the first operation where several brigades were involved. The city was attacked from the north via Majdal al-Sadiq and al-Muzayri'a and from the east via Khulda, al-Qubab, Jimzu and Daniyal. Bombers were also used for the first time in the conflict to bombard the city. The IDF captured the city on 11 July. The next day, Ramle also fell. The civilian populations of Lydda and Ramle fled or were expelled to the Arab front lines, and following resistance in Lydda, the population there was expelled without provision of transport vehicles; some of the evictees died on the long walk under the hot July sun.^[140]

On 15–16 July, an attack on Latrun took place but did not manage to occupy the fort. A desperate second attempt occurred on 18 July by units from the Yiftach Brigade equipped with armored vehicles, including two Cromwell tanks, but that attack also failed. Despite the second truce, which began on 18 July, the Israeli efforts to conquer Latrun continued until 20 July.

Operation Dekel

While Operation Danny proceeded in the centre, Operation Dekel was carried out in the north. Nazareth was captured on 16 July, and by the time the second truce took effect at 19:00 18 July, the whole lower Galilee from Haifa Bay to the Sea of Galilee was captured by Israel.

Operation Kedem

Originally Operation Kedem was to begin on 8 July, immediately after the first truce, by Irgun and Lehi forces. However, it was delayed by David Shaltiel, possibly because he did not trust their ability after their failure to capture Deir Yassin without Haganah assistance.

The Irgun forces commanded by Yehuda Lapidot were to break through at The New Gate, Lehi was to break through the wall stretching from the New Gate to the Jaffa Gate, and the Beit Horon Battalion was to strike from Mount Zion.

On July 14, 1948, Irgun occupied the Arab village of Malha after a fierce battle. Several hours later, the Arabs launched a counterattack, but Israeli reinforcements arrived, and the village was retaken at a cost of 17 dead.

The battle was planned to begin on the Sabbath, at 20:00 on 16 July, two days before the second ceasefire of the war. The plan went wrong from the beginning and was postponed first to 23:00 and then to midnight. It was not until 02:30 that the battle actually began. The Irgun managed to break through at the New Gate, but the other forces failed in their missions. At 05:45 on 17 July, Shaltiel ordered a retreat and to cease hostilities.

Second truce: 18 July–15 October 1948

At 19:00 on 18 July, the second truce of the conflict went into effect after intense diplomatic efforts by the UN.

On 16 September, Folke Bernadotte proposed a new partition for Palestine in which Jordan would annex Arab areas including the Negev, Lydda and Ramla. There would be a Jewish state in the whole of Galilee, internationalization of Jerusalem, and return or compensation for refugees. The plan was once again rejected by both sides. On the next day, 17 September, Bernadotte was assassinated by Lehi because of fears that the Jewish government would accept the plan, but unbeknownst to Lehi, the government had already decided to reject it and resume combat in a month. Bernadotte's deputy, American Ralph Bunche, replaced him.

Operation Shoter

The Arabs had blocked Israeli traffic along the Tel Aviv-Haifa highway. Assaults on 18 June and 8 July failed due to poor planning and stiff resistance by Arab militia in superior positions.

Operation Shoter was launched a week after the truce came into effect in response to the killing of two Israeli civilians. It targeted an area known as the Little Triangle outside Haifa. Israeli assaults on 24 and 25 July were beaten back by stiff resistance. The Israelis launched an infantry and armour assault backed by heavy artillery shelling and aerial bombing. The Arab defenses broke, and the three Arab villages surrendered. Israeli soldiers and aircraft struck at one of the Arab retreat routes, killing 60 Arab soldiers. The Arabs claimed that the Israelis had massacred Arab civilians, but the Israelis rejected the claims. A United Nations investigation found no evidence of a massacre.

Third phase: 15 October 1948–7 January 1949

Israeli operations

Israel launched a series of military operations in order to drive out the Arab armies and secure the borders of Israel.

October battles

On 15 October, the IDF launched Operation Yoav in the northern Negev. Its goal was to drive a wedge between the Egyptian forces along the coast and the Beersheba-Hebron-Jerusalem road and ultimately to conquer the whole Negev. Yoav was headed by the Southern Front commander Yigal Allon. The operation was a huge success, shattering the Egyptian army ranks and forcing the Egyptian forces to retreat from the northern Negev, Beersheba and Ashdod. On 22 October, Israeli naval commandos sank the Egyptian flagship Emir Farouk.

An Israeli mortar team outside Safsaf in October 1948

On 22 October, the third truce went into effect.^[141]

On 24 October, the IDF launched Operation Hiram and captured the entire upper Galilee, driving the ALA and Lebanese army back to Lebanon. At the end of the month, Israel had captured the whole Galilee and had advanced 5 miles (8.0 km) into Lebanon to the Litani River.

On 22 December, the IDF drove the remaining Egyptian forces out of Israel with Operation Horev (also called Operation Ayin). The goal of the operation was to secure the entire Negev from Egyptian presence, destroying the Egyptian threat on Israel's southern communities and forcing the Egyptians into a ceasefire. The operation was a decisive Israeli victory, and Israeli raids into the Nitzana area and the Sinai peninsula forced the Egyptian army, which was encircled in the Gaza Strip, to withdraw and accept a ceasefire. On 7 January 1949, a truce was achieved. Israeli forces withdrew from Sinai and Gaza under international pressure.

On 5 March, Operation Uvda was launched. On 10 March, the Israelis reached Umm Rashrash (where Eilat was built later) and took it without a battle. The Negev Brigade and Golani Brigade took part in the operation. They raised a hand-made flag ("The Ink Flag") and claimed Umm Rashrash for Israel.

British aircraft

Israeli raids into Egyptian territory were concerning to the British, who feared that the Israelis might reach the Suez Canal, and sent aircraft on reconnaisance missions. On 20 November 1948, an unarmed RAF photo-reconnaissance De Havilland Mosquito of No. 13 Squadron RAF on an intelligence sortie was shot down by an Israeli P-51 Mustang flown by Wayne Peake.^[142] Just before noon on 7 January 1949, four Spitfire FR. 18s from No. 208 Squadron RAF on routine reconnaissance in the Deir al-Balah area inadvertently flew over an Israeli convoy that had just been attacked by the Royal Egyptian Air Force. IDF soldiers in the convoy opened fire with machine guns and shot down one of the British planes. The remaining three planes were then shot down by patrolling Israeli Air Force Spitfires flown by Slick Goodlin and John McElroy, volunteers from the United States and Canada respectively. One pilot was killed. Later that day, four RAF Spitfires from the same squadron escorted by seven No. 213 Squadron RAF Tempests and another eight Tempests from No. 6 Squadron RAF, searching for the lost planes from No. 208 Squadron were attacked by four Israeli Air Force Spitfires. The Tempests found they could not jettison their external fuel tanks, and some found they had non-operational guns.^[143] One of the Tempests was shot down, killing its pilot David Tattersfield.^[144] Another Tempest was damaged by an IAF plane flown by Ezer Weizman.

UN Resolution 194

In December 1948, the UN General Assembly passed Resolution 194 which declared (amongst other things) that in the context of a general peace agreement "refugees wishing to return to their homes and live in peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so" and that "compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return." The resolution also mandated the creation of the United Nations Conciliation Commission. However, parts of the resolution were never implemented, resulting in the Palestinian refugee crisis.

Weapons

Largely leftover World War II era weapons were used by both sides. Egypt had some British equipment; the Syrian army had some French. German and British equipment was used by Israel.^[145]

Aftermath

1949 Armistice Agreements

In 1949, Israel signed separate armistices with Egypt on 24 February, Lebanon on 23 March, Jordan on 3 April, and Syria on 20 July. The new borders of Israel, as set by the agreements, encompassed about 78% of Mandatory Palestine as it stood after the independence of Jordan in 1946. This was about 18% more than the UN partition proposal allotted it. These ceasefire lines were known afterwards as the "Green Line". The Gaza Strip and the West Bank were occupied by Egypt and Jordan respectively. The United Nations Truce Supervision Organization and Mixed Armistice Commissions were set up to monitor ceasefires, supervise the armistice agreements, to prevent isolated incidents from escalating, and assist other UN peacekeeping operations in the region.

Casualties

Israel lost 6,373 of its people, about 1% of its population in the war. About 4,000 were soldiers and the rest were civilians. The exact number of Arab losses is unknown but is estimated at between 8,000 and 15,000.

Demographic outcome

During the 1947-1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine and the 1948 Arab–Israeli War that followed, around 750,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes. In 1951, the UN Conciliation Commission for Palestine estimated that the number of Palestinian refugees displaced from Israel was 711,000.^[146] This number did not include displaced Palestinians inside Israeli-held territory. The list of villages depopulated during the Arab-Israeli conflict includes more than 400 Arab villages. It also includes about ten Jewish villages and neighbourhoods.

The Causes of the 1948 Palestinian exodus are a controversial topic among historians.^[147]

The Palestinian refugee problem and the debate around the right of their return are also major issues of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Arab Palestinians have staged annual demonstrations and protests on 15 May of each year. The popularity and number of participants in these annual al Nakba demonstrations has varied over time. During the al-Aqsa Intifada after the failure of the Camp David 2000 Summit, the attendance at the demonstrations against Israel increased.

During the 1948 War, around 10,000 Jews were forced to evacuate their homes in Palestine or Israel,^[148] but in the three years following the war, 700,000 Jews settled in Israel, mainly along the borders and in former Arab lands.^[149] Around 136,000 came from the 250,000 displaced Jews of World War II.^[150] About another 270,000 came from Eastern Europe. The bulk of the rest—around 300,000 people—constituted the first wave of a total of 750,000 or more Jews who over the course of the next thirty years would flee an increasingly hostile Arab world.^[151]

Controversies

After the war, Israeli and Palestinian historiographies differed on the interpretation of the events of 1948. In the West the majority view was of a tiny group of vastly outnumbered and ill-equipped Jews fighting off the massed strength of the invading Arab armies. It was also widely believed that the Palestinian Arabs left their homes on the instruction of their leaders. In 1980, and the opening of the Israeli and British archives, Israeli historians started giving new insights on them. Particularly, the role played by Abdullah I of Jordan, the British government, the Arab aims during the war, the balance of force and the events related to the Palestinian exodus have been nuanced or given new interpretations.^[152] Some of them are still hotly debated among historians and commentators of the conflict today.^[153]

IDF forces in 1948

Israeli Defence Forces formerly Haganah:

• Chief of General Staff
• Combat Engineering Corps (Israel)
• Guard Corps (Home Guard)
• IDF Artillery Corps (Israel)
• IDF Infantry/Armored Brigades (formed from both Jewish Brigade and 1939 HISH which in turn was formed from the 1937–1939 FOSH/Special Night Squads units):
  • 1st Brigade a.k.a. Golani Brigade (made from a part of the Levanoni Brigade on 1 February 1948)
  • 2nd Brigade a.k.a. Carmeli Brigade (later changed to 18th Brigade and today known as Barak Armored Brigade)
  • 3rd Brigade a.k.a. Alexandroni Brigade (32nd Battalion in Latrun Battle)
  • 4th Brigade a.k.a. Kiryati Brigade
  • 5th Brigade a.k.a. Givati Brigade
  • 6th Brigade a.k.a. Etzioni Brigade
  • 7th Armoured Brigade aka Sheva Brigade (71st; 72nd; 73rd Battalions in Latrun Battle)
  • 8th Armored Brigade aka Shmone Brigade
  • 9th Brigade aka Oded Brigade
  • 10th Armored Brigade aka Harel Brigade (Palmach, consisting of 3 Palmach Battalions)
  • 11th Brigade aka Yiftach Brigade (Palmach, consisting of 3 Palmach Battalions and 54th Reconnaissance Battalion (Samson's Foxes).
  • 12th Brigade aka Negev Brigade (Palmach, consisting of 4 Palmach Battalions-later numbered 3 Battalions-including the Negev Beasts)
• Israeli Air Force (formerly Sherut Avir):
  • 69 Squadron IAF
  • 100 Squadron IAF (liaison/supply)
  • 101 Squadron IAF
  • 103 Squadron IAF (transport)
  • 106 Squadron IAF
• Israeli Sea Corps: (Formerly Palyam)
  • Naval Brigade aka Shayetet 13 (formerly Naval Brigade of Haganah)
  • "Eliat"/A-16 {aka "Matzpen" changed from "The Jewish State"} formerly USCGC icebreaker "Northland"
  • "Wedgwood"/K-18 formerly RCN Flower Corvette "Norysd"
  • "Haganah"/K-20 formerly RCN Flower Corvette "Beauharnois"
  • "Maoz"/K-24 formerly USCC patrol boat "Cytheria" {PY-31}
  • "Noga"/K-26 formerly USN PC.1265
• Israel Engineering Corps
• Logistics Corps (Israel)
• Mahal (Israel)
• Medical Corps (Israel)
• Military Rabbinate
• Mossad
• Nahal
• Notrim:
  • Jewish Settlement Police
  • Jewish Supernumerary Police
  • Israel Police
  • Frontier Corps (later Israel Border Police)
  • Military Police Corps (Israel)
• Ordnance Corps
• Palmach-see Brigades 10; 11; 12 above and Palyam)
• SHAI (later Aman)
• Shin Bet
• Israeli Women's Corps
• Non-Haganah/Palmach Units:
  • Circassian units
  • Druze units
  • Irgun (disbanded and absorbed into IDF) {Formed 57th Battalion of the Givati Brigade}
  • Lehi (disbanded and absorbed into IDF)

See also

• Israeli-Arab conflict
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict
• Wars of Israel
• 1948 Palestinian exodus
• Jewish exodus from Arab lands
• Killings and massacres during the 1948 Palestine War
• List of Israeli military operations in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war
• List of villages depopulated during the Arab-Israeli conflict

Notes

References

Further reading

• Aloni, Shlomo (2001). Arab-Israeli Air Wars 1947-82. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 1-84176-294-6
• Beckman, Morris (1999). The Jewish Brigade: An Army With Two Masters, 1944-45. Sarpedon Publishers. ISBN 978-1-86227-423-5
• Ben-Ami, Shlomo (2006). Scars of War, Wounds of Peace: The Israeli-Arab Tragedy. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-518158-1
• Benvenisti, Meron (2002). Sacred Landscape. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-23422-7
• Flapan, Simha (1987), 'The Birth of Israel: Myths and Realities', Pantheon Books, New York.
• Gilbert, Martin (1976). The Arab-Israeli Conflict Weidenfeld & Nicholson. ISBN 0-297-77241-4
• Landis, Joshua. "Syria and the Palestine War: fighting King 'Abdullah's 'Greater Syria plan.'" Rogan and Shlaim. The War for Palestine. 178-205.
• Masalha, Nur (1992). Expulsion of the Palestinians: The Concept of 'Transfer' in Zionist Political Thought, 1882–1948, Institute for Palestine Studies, ISBN 0-88728-235-0
• Sheleg, Yair (2001). A Short History of Terror Haaretz.
• Zertal, Idith (2005). Israel's Holocaust and the Politics of Nationhood. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-85096-7

Fiction

• The Hope by Herman Wouk, a historical novel that includes a fictionalized version of Israel's War of Independence.

External links

• Overview of The 1948 Israeli War of Independence (documentary)
• Resources > Modern Period > 20th Cent. > History of Israel > State of Israel > The Wars > War of Independence The Jewish History Resource Center, Project of the Dinur Center for Research in Jewish History, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
• About the War of Independence
• United Nations: System on the Question of Palestine
• Israel War of Independence (First Arab-Israeli War)
• Timeline: Israel War of Independence (First Arab-Israeli War)
• History of Palestine, Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
• Palestinian viewpoint concerning the context of the 1948 war
• The BBC on the UN Partition Plan
• The BBC on the Formation of Israel
• Israel and the Arab Coalition in 1948
• "I Have Returned.". Time Magazine. 15 March 1948. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,779710,00.html. Retrieved October 31, 2009. 
• "War for Jerusalem Road.". Time Magazine. 19 April 1948. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,798381,00.html. Retrieved October 31, 2009. 

Maps

• Arab invasion 15 May 1948
• Operation AYIN 22 December 1948-7 January 1949