1948 Palestine war

The 1948 Palestine war refers to the events in the British Mandate of Palestine between the United Nations vote on the partition plan on November 30, 1947, to the end of the first Arab-Israeli war on July 20, 1949. The war can be divided into two phases : The Civil War (sometimes called an "intercommunal war") in which Palestinian Arabs , supported by the Arab Liberation Army , fought Palestinian Jews while the region was still fully under British rule. The 1948 Arab–Israeli War after May 15, 1948, marking the end of the British Mandate and the birth of Israel , in which Transjordan , Egypt , Syria and Iraq sent expeditionary forces into Palestine. The newly formed Israeli army launched a series of offensives into areas allocated to the proposed Arab state. At the issue of the war, the State of Israel kept most of the area that had been allocated by the U. Israel also took control of a portion of the area allocated to the proposed Arab state, including the Jaffa , Lydda and Ramle area, Galilee , Negev , a strip along the Tel-Aviv - Jerusalem road and some territories in the West Bank . Transjordan took control of the remainder of the West Bank, putting it under military rule , and the Egyptian military took control of the Gaza Strip . No Arab Palestinian state was created. Due to the war, demographic changes occurred in the country. Between 600,000 and 760,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from the area that became Israel and became Palestinian refugees . On the other hand, around 10,000 Jews were forced to leave their homes in Palestine. In the three years following the war, about 700,000 Jews immigrated to Israel, residing mainly along the borders and in former Arab lands. Around 136,000 were some of the 250,000 displaced Jews of World War II. Around half were part of the 750,000 to 900,000 Jews who left or were expelled from Arab countries between 1948 and the Six-Day War . The Israelis refer to this period as their War of Independence or War of Liberation , because it saw the birth of the State of Israel, while Palestinians and Arabs refer to this as al-Nakba ( the catastrophe ), because of the huge number of displaced people and the failure of their nationalist aspirations due to their loss in the war. Future government of Palestine A/RES/181(II)(A+B) 29 November 1947 This corresponds to the signature of the armistice agreement between Syria and Israel. Others consider the war ended at the last cease fire on January 8, 1949. Strategy and Diplomacy , Routledge , 2004. My predeliction would be to opt for the loose contemporary British formula, that of 'between 600,000 and 760,000' refugees; but, if pressed, 700,000 is probably a fair estimate" - Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, p603-4.

The 1948 Palestine war , known in Hebrew as The War of Independence ( , Milkhemet Ha'Atzma'ut ) or the War of Liberation ( , Milkhemet HaShikhrur ) and in Arabic as The Nakba or Catastrophe ( , al-Nakba ), refers to the war that occurred in the former Mandatory Palestine during the period between the United Nations vote on the partition plan on November 30, 1947, and the official end of the first Arab-Israeli war on July 20, 1949. Historians divide the war into two phases: The 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine (sometimes called an "intercommunal war") in which the Jewish and Arab communities of Palestine , supported by the Arab Liberation Army , clashed, while the region was still fully under British rule . The 1948 Arab–Israeli War after 15 May 1948, marking the end of the British Mandate and the birth of Israel , in which Transjordan , Egypt , Syria and Iraq intervened and sent expeditionary forces that attacked the Israeli army. At the end of the war, the State of Israel kept the area that had been recommended by the UN General Assembly Resolution 181 as well as almost 60% of the area allocated to the proposed Arab state, including the Jaffa , Lydda and Ramle area, Galilee , some parts of the Negev , a wide strip along the Tel-Aviv – Jerusalem road, and some territories in the West Bank , putting them under military rule . Transjordan took control of the remainder of the Palestinian mandate, which it annexed, and the Egyptian military took control of the Gaza Strip . With Jordan occupying the West Bank and Egypt occupying Gaza, no state was created for the Palestinian Arabs. Dramatic demographic changes accompanied the war in the country. Around 700,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from the area that became Israel, and they became Palestinian refugees . Due to the war, around 10,000 Jews fled or were expelled from their homes in Palestine. In the three years following the war, about 700,000 Jews fled from Europe and Arab lands and immigrated to Israel, with one third of them having left or been expelled from their previous countries of residence in the Middle East. These Jewish refugees were absorbed into Israel in the One Million Plan . In Israel, the war is known as War of Independence or War of Liberation , because the modern State of Israel originated in the Yishuv (the pre-state Jewish community in Palestine) declaring its independence from the British Imperial Mandate in 1948. Israelis usually mark the anniversary of their independence on the 5th of Iyar of the Hebrew Calendar . It is known in Arabic as al-Nakba ("the Catastrophe"), because of their loss of lands which they had occupied for centuries, the high number of displaced persons, and their failure to create an Arab State in Palestine following their defeat in the 1948 war. Moshe Yegar, "Pakistan and Israel," Jewish Political Studies Review 19:3–4 (Fall 2007) Anita Shapira, L'imaginaire d'Israël : histoire d'une culture politique (2005) , Latroun : la mémoire de la bataille , Chap. Reuven Firestone To Jews, the Jewish-Arab war of 1947–1948 is the War of Independence ( milchemet ha'atzma'ut ). To Arabs, and especially Palestinians, it is the nakba or calamity. I therefore refrain from assigning names to wars. Neil Caplan Although some historians would cite 14 May 1948 as the start of the war known variously as the Israeli War of Independence, an-Nakba (the (Palestinian) Catastrophe), or the first Palestine war, it would be more accurate to consider that war as beginning on 30 November 1947'. Others consider the war to have ended at the last ceasefire on January 8, 1949. Yoav Gelber , Israel's War of Independence — the equivalent to the Palestinians' Al- Nakba (Arabic for "Disaster") – consisted of two distinct, consecutive, but separate campaigns fought by different enemies, under dissimilar circumstances, each phase under different rules. The first encounter commenced early in December 1947 and lasted until the British mandate in Palestine expired. It was a civil war between Jews and Palestinians that took place under British sovereignty and in the presence of Jewish troops. Strategy and Diplomacy , Routledge , 2004. The Prize and Price of Zion .

The 1947–1949 Palestine war , known in Israel as the War of Independence ( , Milkhemet Ha'Atzma'ut ) and in Arabic as The Nakba ( lit. Catastrophe , , al-Nakba ), was fought in the territory of Palestine under the British Mandate . It is the first war of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the broader Arab–Israeli conflict . During this war, the British Empire withdrew from Mandate Palestine, which had been a province (eyalet) of the Ottoman Empire before British occupation in 1917. The war culminated in the establishment of the State of Israel by the Jews , and saw the complete demographic transformation of Palestine, with the displacement of around 700,000 Palestinian Arabs and the complete destruction of most of their villages, towns and cities . The Palestinian Arabs ended up stateless, displaced either to the Palestinian territories captured by Egypt and Jordan or to the surrounding Arab states; many of them, as well as their descendants, remain stateless and in refugee camps . The territory that was under British administration before the war was divided between the State of Israel, which captured about 78% of it, the Kingdom of Jordan (then known as Transjordan), which captured and later annexed the area that became the West Bank , and Egypt , which captured the Gaza Strip , a coastal territory on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea , in which it established the All-Palestine Government . The war had two main phases. The first phase is the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine . It began on 30 November 1947, a day after the United Nations voted to divide the territory of Palestine into Jewish and Arab sovereign states, and an international Jerusalem ( UN Resolution 181 ). The Jewish leadership accepted the plan, but the Palestinian Arab leaders, as well as the Arab states, unanimously opposed it and conflict soon began. This phase of the war is described by historians as the "civil", "ethnic" or "intercommunal" war , as it was fought mainly between Jewish and Palestinian Arab militias, supported by the Arab Liberation Army and the surrounding Arab states. Characterised by guerrilla warfare and terrorism , it escalated at the end of March 1948 when the Jews went on the offensive, and concluded with their defeating the Palestinians in major campaigns and battles, establishing clear frontlines. During this period the British still maintained a declining rule over Palestine and occasionally intervened in the violence. The British Empire scheduled its withdrawal and abandonment of all claims to Palestine for 14 May 1948. On that date, when the last remaining British troops and personnel were on departure at the city of Haifa , the Jewish leadership in Palestine declared the establishment of the State of Israel . This declaration was followed by the immediate invasion of Palestine by the surrounding Arab armies and expeditionary forces in order to prevent the establishment of Israel and to aid the Palestinian Arabs, who were on the losing side at that point, with a large portion of their population already fleeing or being forced out by the Jewish militias. The invasion marked the beginning of the second phase of the war, the 1948 Arab–Israeli War . The Egyptians advanced on the southern coastal strip and were halted near Ashdod ; the Jordanian Arab Legion and Iraqi forces captured the central highlands of Palestine. Syria and Lebanon fought several skirmishes with the Israeli forces in the north. The Jewish militias, organised into the Israel Defense Forces , managed to halt the Arab forces. The following months saw fierce fighting between the IDF and the Arab armies, which were being slowly pushed back. The Jordanian and Iraqi armies managed to maintain control over most of the central highlands of Palestine and capture East Jerusalem, including the Old City. Egypt's occupation zone was limited to the Gaza Strip and a small pocket surrounded by Israeli forces at Al-Faluja . In October and December 1948, Israeli forces crossed into Lebanese territory and pushed into Egypt's Sinai Peninsula , encircling the Egyptian forces near Gaza City . The last military activity happened in March 1949, when Israeli forces captured the Negev desert and reached the Red Sea . In 1949, Israel signed separate armistices with Egypt on 24 February, Lebanon on 23 March, Transjordan on 3 April, and Syria on 20 July. During this period the flight and expulsion of the Palestinian Arabs continued. In the three years following the war, about 700,000 Jews immigrated to Israel from Europe and Arab lands, with one third of them having left or been expelled from their countries of residence in the Middle East. These refugees were absorbed into Israel in the One Million Plan . Moshe Yegar, "Pakistan and Israel," Jewish Political Studies Review 19:3–4 (Fall 2007) Anita Shapira, L'imaginaire d'Israël : histoire d'une culture politique (2005) , Latroun : la mémoire de la bataille , Chap. Ground Warfare: An International Encyclopedia . Casualties in Arab-Israeli Wars Clodfelter, Micheal (2017). A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492-2015, 4th ed . Fischbach, an American scholar of the archives of the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine , estimates that, in all, Palestinians lost some 6 to 8 million dunams (1.5 to 2 million acres) of land, not including communal land farmed by villages or state land. Philip Mattar , ‘Al-Nakba,’ in Philip Mattar Encyclopedia of the Palestinians, Infobase Publishing , 2005 Reuven Firestone To Jews, the Jewish-Arab war of 1947–1948 is the War of Independence ( milchemet ha'atzma'ut ). To Arabs, and especially Palestinians, it is the nakba or calamity. I therefore refrain from assigning names to wars. Neil Caplan Although some historians would cite 14 May 1948 as the start of the war known variously as the Israeli War of Independence, an-Nakba (the (Palestinian) Catastrophe), or the first Palestine war, it would be more accurate to consider that war as beginning on 30 November 1947'. Idiot's Guides: The Middle East Conflict . There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or templates on this page, but the references will not show without a template or template (see the help page ).

First war of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict This article is about the entire conflict in Palestine in 1948. Between +5,000 and 20,000 (including civilians and armed irregulars), among which 4,000 soldiers for Egypt, Jordan and Syria; other estimate: 15,000 Arab dead and 25,000 wounded. Aref al-Aref gives the number of Palestinian deaths as 13,000, with the majority of that number being civilians. Ilan Pappé writes that "a few thousand died in massacres." Benny Morris estimates total Palestinian losses at +5,800, and that around 800 civilians and prisoners of war were massacred. The 1948 Palestine war was fought in the territory of what had been, at the start of the war, British-ruled Mandatory Palestine . During the war, the British withdrew from Palestine, Zionist forces conquered territory and established the State of Israel , and over 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled . By the end of the war, the State of Israel had captured about 78% of former territory of the mandate, the Kingdom of Jordan had captured and later annexed the area that became the West Bank , and Egypt had captured the Gaza Strip . The war formally ended with the 1949 Armistice Agreements , which established the Green Line demarcating these territories. It was the first war of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the broader Arab–Israeli conflict . The war had two main phases, the first being the 1947–1948 civil war , which began on 30 November 1947, a day after the United Nations voted to adopt the Partition Plan for Palestine , which planned for the division of the territory into Jewish and Arab sovereign states. During this period the British still maintained a declining rule over Palestine and occasionally intervened in the violence. Initially on the defensive, the Zionist forces switched to the offensive in April 1948. In anticipation of an invasion by Arab armies, they enacted Plan Dalet , an operation aimed at securing territory for the establishment of a Jewish state. The second phase of the war began on 14 May 1948, with the termination of the British Mandate and the declaration of the establishment of the State of Israel . The following morning, the surrounding Arab armies invaded Palestine, beginning the 1948 Arab–Israeli War . The Egyptians advanced in the south-east while the Jordanian Arab Legion and Iraqi forces captured the central highlands. Syria and Lebanon fought with the Israeli forces in the north. The newly formed Israel Defense Forces managed to halt the Arab forces and in the following months began pushing them back and capturing territory. During the war, massacres and acts of terror were conducted by and against both sides . A campaign of massacres and violence against the Arab population, such as occurred at Lydda and Ramle and the Battle of Haifa , led to the expulsion and flight of over 700,000 Palestinians , with most of their urban areas being depopulated and destroyed . This violence and dispossession of the Palestinians is known today as the Nakba ( Arabic for "the disaster") and resulted in the beginning of the Palestinian refugee problem . Minorities in the Middle East: A History of Struggle and Self-Expression (2d ed.). This Jewish-Druze partnership was often referred to as a "covenant of blood," in recognition of the common military yoke carried by the two peoples for the security of the country. Ground Warfare: An International Encyclopedia . Under the Cover of War . A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492–2015 (4th ed.). "[...] al-Arif, in al-Nakba , vol. 6, is able to list the names, dates, and places of death of 1,953 Palestinians (out of a total he puts at 13,000) who died as “martyrs” in the war of 1947-49." Henry Laurens, La question de Palestine, Vol. 3. 1947-1967, l'accomplissement des prophéties (2007), citing al-Nakba , vol. 6 1. A History of Modern Palestine. 3rd ed. Fischbach, an American scholar of the archives of the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine , estimates that, in all, Palestinians lost some 6 to 8 million dunams (1.5 to 2 million acres) of land, not including communal land farmed by villages or state land. In Mattar, Philip (ed.). Encyclopedia of the Palestinians . To Jews, the Jewish-Arab war of 1947–1948 is the War of Independence ( milchemet ha'atzma'ut ). To Arabs, and especially Palestinians, it is the nakba or calamity. I therefore refrain from assigning names to wars. I refer to the wars between the State of Israel and its Arab and Palestinian neighbors according to their dates: 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, and 1982. The Israel-Palestine Conflict: Contested Histories . Perhaps the most famous case of differences over the naming of events is the 1948 war (more accurately, the fighting from December 1947 through January 1949). Although some historians would cite 14 May 1948 as the start of the war known variously as the Israeli War of Independence, an-Nakba (the (Palestinian) Catastrophe), or the first Palestine war, it would be more accurate to consider that war as beginning on 30 November 1947. Until the end of January 1948, neither side had the upper hand. But in February and March, Arab ambushers inflicted major defeats on Haganah convoys along the roads, especially between Tel Aviv and (Jewish West) Jerusalem. It appeared to the Yishuv’s leaders that, besieged, Jewish Jerusalem – with a population of 100,000 – might fall; there were similar fears regarding several clusters of Jewish rural settlements around Jerusalem and in western Galilee. The defeats and significant casualties suffered caused the Yishuv to rethink its strategy. The Yishuv was struggling for its life; an invasion by the Arab states could deliver the coup de grâce. It was with this situation and prospect in mind that the Haganah chiefs, in early March, produced ‘Tochnit Dalet’ (Plan D), a blueprint for securing the emergent Jewish state and the blocs of settlements outside the state’s territory against the expected invasion on or after 15 May." Khalidi, Walid (1 October 1988). JSTOR 2537591 . 'Plan Dalet' or 'Plan D' was the name given by the Zionist High Command to the general plan for military operations within the framework of which the Zionists launched successive offensives in April and early May 1948 in various parts of Palestine. These offensives, which entailed the destruction of the Palestinian Arab community and the expulsion and pauperization of the bulk of the Palestine Arabs, were calculated to achieve the military fait accompli upon which the state of Israel was to be based. The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited . It is impossible to arrive at a definite persuasive estimate. My predilection would be to opt for the loose contemporary British formula, that of 'between 600,000 and 760,000' refugees; but, if pressed, 700,000 is probably a fair estimate Memo US Department of State, 4 May 1949 . One of the most important problems which must be cleared up before a lasting peace can be established in Palestine is the question of the more than 700,000 Arab refugees who during the Palestine conflict fled from their homes in what is now Israeli occupied territory and are at present living as refugees in Arab Palestine and the neighbouring Arab states. Approximately 700,000 refugees from the Palestine hostilities, now located principally in Arab Palestine, Transjordan, Lebanon and Syria, will require repatriation to Israel or resettlement in the Arab states. There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or templates on this page, but the references will not show without a template or template (see the help page ).