| Battle of the Ammunition Hill | |||||||
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| Part of Six Day War | |||||||
A trench on the Ammunition Hill, with the police academy seen in the background, Jerusalem, 1967. |
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| Israel | Jordan | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Mordechai Gur Shlomo Yossi Yafe Uzi Narkis |
Hussein bin Talal Zaid ibn Shaker |
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| Strength | |||||||
| Reinforced company | About 150 soldiers | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 36 killed | 71 killed | ||||||
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Ammunition Hill (Hebrew: גבעת התחמושת, Giv'at HaTahmoshet) was a military post in the northern part of Jordanian controlled East Jerusalem, and the site of one of the fiercest battles of the Six Day War. [1]
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Ammunition Hill was located across from a police academy, with a fortified trench connecting them. The site was built by the British during their Mandatory government of Palestine in the 1930s, and was used to store the police academy's ammunition.
Following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the post remained under control of the Jordanian Arab Legion, severing the link between Mount Scopus and West Jerusalem. In the wake of the Jordan-Israel Armistice Agreement, parts of Mount Scopus remained an Israeli enclave[2] in Jordanian-held territory, with the Jordanians blocking access to Hadassah Hospital and the campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on the hilltop.[2]
The post consisted of tens of bunkers built along the three main trench systems surrounding the hill, with fortified gun emplacements covering each trench. The living quarters for the Jordanian defenders of the hill were in a large underground bunker now housing a museum. When the Six Day War broke out, the post was defended by a reinforced Jordanian company of 150 soldiers, of the El-Hussein regiment (number 2).
A decision was taken by the Israeli Jerusalem Command, under General Uzi Narkis to forego an aerial attack on the hill due to its proximity to civilian areas. Instead an artillery barrage was to be focused on the police post, followed by a ground attack using an enlarged Paratroop company. The size of the Israeli assault force was based on incorrect intelligence which detailed the hill as being defended by a single platoon. When the ground assault began, the Police post was discovered to be empty of Jordanian troops, as they had taken shelter from the barrage in the bunker system of the hill, thereby enlarging the force defending the hill to one equal in size to the assault force rather than 1/3 of its size as had been anticipated by Israeli Central Command.
The fighting at the police academy site and Ammunition Hill began on June 6, 1967, at 2:30 AM. The task of capturing the hill was given to the Israeli 3rd company of the 66th Battalion, of the Paratroopers Brigade's reserve force (55th Brigade), and during the battle, a force of the 2nd company joined the fighting. The battle ended at 7 AM. 36 Israeli soldiers were killed in the battle for Ammunition Hill.[1] 71 Jordanian soldiers were killed.
Ten of the soldiers who fought in this battle were given citations by the Israeli chief of general staff. The commander of the Paratroopers Brigade was Mordechai Gur. The commander of the 66th Battalion was Yossi Yafe.
In 1975, a memorial site was inaugurated in which a part of the old post was preserved and a museum was built. One wall in the museum lists the names of the 182 Israeli soldiers killed in the battles for the capture of Jerusalem. In 1987, the site was declared a national memorial site. The main ceremony on Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day) is held there.
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