On December 22, 1948, Israeli forces attacked Egyptian Army units positioned in the southern Negev, driving them across the Egyptian border after five days of fighting. The Israelis then crossed into the Sinai Peninsula and advanced toward al-Arish to trap the Egyptian Army. Britain and the United States exerted pressure on Israel, forcing the latter to withdraw its forces from the Sinai.
On January 3, 1949, the Israeli Army surrounded the Egyptian forces inside the Gaza Strip in southwestern Palestine. Three days later, Egypt agreed to a ceasefire, which soon came into effect. The 1948 Arab-Israeli War was over. In the following months, Israel signed separate armistices with Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.
At war’s end, Israel held 78% of Palestine, 22% more than was allotted to the Jews in the original UN partition plan. Israel’s territories comprised the whole Galilee and Jezreel Valley in the north, the whole Negev in the south, the coastal plains, and West Jerusalem. Jordan acquired the West Bank, while Egypt gained the Gaza Strip. No Palestinian Arab state was formed.
During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and the 1947-1948 Civil War in Palestine (previous article) that preceded it, over 700,000 Palestinian Arabs fled from their homes, with most of them eventually settling in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and southern Lebanon (Map 11). About 10,000 Palestinian Jews also were displaced by the conflict. Furthermore, as a consequence of these wars, tens of thousands of Jews left or were forced to leave from many Arab countries. Most of these Jewish refugees settled in Israel.
(Taken from 1948 Arab-Israeli War – Wars of the 20th Century – Volume 1)
On May 14, 1948, the Palestinian Jews established the State of Israel. The next day, the infant nation was attacked by the armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq, assisted by volunteer fighters from other Arab states. The Arabs’ stated reasons for the invasion were to stop the violence and to restore law and order in Palestine, and to allow the Palestinian people to form a government of their choice. Also cited by the Arabs was the displacement of Palestinian Arabs caused by Jewish aggression. As the nation of Israel was by now in existence, the resulting 1948 Arab-Israeli War was one fought by sovereign states.
From the east, Jordanian and Iraqi forces crossed the Jordan River into Palestine. The Jordanians advanced along two columns for Jerusalem, which they surrounded on May 17, 1948. After heavy house-to-house fighting, the Jewish defenders of the city were forced to surrender when they ran low on food and ammunition. The Jordanians captured Jerusalem and then occupied Latrun, a strategic outpost overlooking the highway that led to Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, the Iraqis advanced to the vicinity surrounding the Arab-populated city of Jenin, Nablus, and Tulkaran. On May 25, they captured Geulim, Kfar Vona, and Ein Vered before being stopped at Natanya, their ultimate objective on the western coast. Natanya’s fall would have divided Israel’s coastal areas in two.
A strong Israeli counterattack on Jenin forced the Iraqis to pull back and defend the city. The Iraqis repulsed the Israeli attack. Now, however, they were concerned with making further advances because of the risk of being cut off from the rear. The Iraqis, therefore, switched to a defensive position, which they maintained for the rest of the war.
From the northeast, Syrian forces began their campaign by advancing toward the south side of the Sea of Galilee. They captured some Israeli villages before being defeated at Degania. The Syrians soon withdrew across the border in order to regroup. On June 6, they launched another attack, this time in northern Galilee, where they captured Mishmar Hayarden. Israeli Army reinforcements soon arrived in northern Palestine, stopping further Syrian advances.
From the south, the Egyptian Army, which was the largest among the invading forces, entered Palestine through the Sinai Desert. The Egyptians then advanced through southern Palestine on two fronts: one along the coastal road for Tel-Aviv, and another through the central Negev for Jerusalem.
On June 11, 1948, the United Nations (UN) imposed a truce, which lasted for 28 days until July 8. A UN panel arrived in Palestine to work out a deal among the warring sides. The UN effort, however, failed to bring about a peace agreement.
By the end of the first weeks of the war, the Israeli Army had stopped the supposed Arab juggernaut that the Israelis had feared would simply roll in and annihilate their fledging nation. Although the fighting essentially had ended in a stalemate, Israeli morale was bolstered considerably, as many Israeli villages had been saved by sheer determination alone. Local militias had thrown back entire Arab regular army units.
Earlier on May 26, Israeli authorities had merged the various small militias and a large Jewish paramilitary into a single Israeli Defense Force, the country’s regular armed forces. Mandatory conscription into the military service was imposed, enabling Israel to double the size of its forces from 30,000 to 60,000 soldiers. Despite the UN arms embargo, the Israeli government was able to purchase large quantities of weapons and military equipment, including heavy firearms, artillery pieces, battle tanks, and warplanes.
The Arabs were handicapped seriously by the UN arms restriction, as the Western countries that supplied much of the Arabs’ weapons adhered to the embargo. Consequently, Arab soldiers experienced ammunition shortages during the fighting, forcing the Arab armies to switch from offensive to defensive positions. Furthermore, Arab reinforcements simply could not match in numbers, zeal, and determination the new Israeli conscripts arriving at the front lines. And just as important, the war revealed the efficiency, preparedness, and motivation of the Israeli Army in stark contrast to the inefficiency, disunity, and inexperience of the Arab forces.
During the truce, the UN offered a new partition plan, which was rejected by the warring sides. Fighting restarted on July 8, one day before the end of the truce. On July 9, Israeli Army units in the center launched an offensive aimed at opening a corridor from Tel-Aviv to eastern Palestine, in order to lift the siege on Jerusalem. The Israelis captured Lydda and Ramle, two Arab strongholds near Tel-Aviv, forcing thousands of Arab civilians to flee from their homes to escape the fighting. The Israelis reached Latrun, just outside Jerusalem, where they failed to break the solid Jordanian defenses, despite making repeated assaults using battle tanks and heavy armored vehicles. The Israelis also failed to break into the Old City of Jerusalem, and eventually were forced to withdraw.
On July 16, however, a powerful Israeli offensive in northern Palestine captured Nazareth and the whole region of lower Galilee extending from Haifa in the coastal west to the Sea of Galilee in the east. Further north, the Syrian Army continued to hold Mishmar Hayarden after stopping an Israeli attempt to take the town.
In southern Palestine, the Egyptian offensives in Negba (July 12), Gal (July 14), and Be-erot Yitzhak were thrown back by the Israeli Army, with disproportionately high Egyptian casualties. On July 18, the UN imposed a second truce, this time of no specified duration.
The truce lasted nearly three months, when on October 15, fighting broke out once more. During the truce, relative calm prevailed in Palestine despite high tensions and the occasional outbreaks of small-scale fighting. The UN also proposed new changes to the partition plan which, however, were rejected once more by the warring sides.