May 25 – June 18, 1948 · Central Palestine Theater
May 25 – June 18, 1948
Israel launched three frontal assaults on the Latrun police fortress, which the Arab Legion used to control the main road to Jerusalem. All three attacks failed with heavy losses. New immigrants who had arrived just days earlier from Holocaust-survivor camps were thrown into battle with minimal training. Col. Mickey Marcus, an American volunteer serving as Israel's first general, was accidentally killed by a sentry the night before the first ceasefire.
Commanders