5 battles
April 21β22, 1948 Β· Northern Palestine Theater
Operation Bi'ur Chametz β Haganah forces seize Haifa in just two days after British forces withdraw from the city. Arab residents, caught between Haganah loudspeaker appeals to stay and ALA orders to flee, abandon the city en masse. The port city falls almost entirely to Jewish forces within 48 hours.
Total casualties
400
Commanders
Carmel vs Committee)
April β July 1948 Β· Central Palestine Theater
The battle for Jerusalem was the war's most contested theater. Jewish areas of the city were besieged, with the Arab Legion cutting the Tel Aviv road and isolating 100,000 Jewish residents. The Jewish Quarter of the Old City fell to Jordanian forces after weeks of house-to-house fighting. Operation Nachshon broke the siege by opening the road, while the Old City remained under Jordanian control.
2,000
Shaltiel vs Legion)
May 25 β June 18, 1948 Β· Central Palestine Theater
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.
1,100
Marcus vs Legion)
October 15 β November 5, 1948 Β· Southern Palestine Theater
Operation Yoav β Israel's major southern offensive β cuts off and destroys Egyptian forces in the Negev desert. Israeli Air Force attacks on the Egyptian column at Faluja trap a brigade including a young Major Gamal Abdel Nasser. The operation secures the Negev for Israel but stops short of the Suez Canal under US pressure.
1,500
Allon vs Army)
December 22, 1948 β January 7, 1949 Β· Sinai / Negev Theater
Israel's final major offensive pushes into Egyptian-held Sinai to encircle and destroy remaining Egyptian forces. Israeli columns advance deep into Egyptian territory before British ultimatum and US pressure force withdrawal. Egypt, facing the loss of its army, agrees to armistice negotiations.
800
Allon vs al-Mwawi