The 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine (29 November 1947 – 14 May 1948) was the first phase of the 1948 Palestine war (29 November 1947 – 10 March 1949). It broke out after the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution on 29 November 1947 recommending the adoption of the Partition Plan for Palestine.Resolution 181 (II). Future government of Palestine A/RES/181(II)(A+B) 29 November 1947
During the civil war, Palestine's Jewish and Arab communities clashed (the latter supported by the Arab Liberation Army) while the British, who had the obligation to maintain order, organized their withdrawal and intervened only occasionally.
At the end of the civil war phase of the war, from April 1948 to mid-May, Zionist forces embarked on an offensive (Plan Dalet) that involved conquering cities and territories in Palestine allocated to a future Jewish state, as well as those allocated to the corpus separatum of Jerusalem and a future Arab state according to the 1947 Partition plan for Palestine. This offensive greatly accelerated the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight, which was effected by various violent means, including a number of massacres such as the widely publicized Deir Yassin massacre.; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
When the British Mandate of Palestine ended on 14 May 1948, and with the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, the surrounding Arab states—Egypt, Transjordan, Iraq, and Syria—invaded what had just ceased to be Mandatory Palestine and further occupying its Arab areas then immediately attacking Israeli forces and several Jewish settlements. The conflict thus escalated and became the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.
Background
Under the control of a British administration since 1920, Palestine found itself the object of a battle between Palestinian and Zionist nationalists, groups that opposed both the British mandate and each other.
The Palestinian opposition culminated in the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, a deadly civil conflict that saw the deaths of nearly 5,000 Palestinian Arabs and 500 Jews and drove much of the Palestinian political leadership, including Amin al-Husseini, leader of the Arab Higher Committee, into exile. Britain also reduced Jewish immigration in response to the violence, as legislated by the 1939 White Paper.
After World War II and The Holocaust, the Zionist movement gained attention and sympathy. In Mandatory Palestine, Zionist groups fought against the British administration. In the two and a half years from 1945 to June 1947, British law enforcement forces lost 103 dead and sustained 391 wounded by Jewish militants.Henry Laurens, La Question de Palestine, volume 2, Fayard, Paris 2002, pp. 571–572. Palestinian Arab nationalists reorganized, but their organization remained inferior to the Zionists'.
On 15 August 1947, the Haganah blew up the house of a Palestinian family near Petah Tikva, killing 12 occupants, including a woman and six children.Walid Khalidi. "Before their Diaspora." IPS 1984; . p. 253. Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian refugee problem, 1947–1949, 2004, p. 343. Morris gives no precise date or number of casualties but describes the house as "suspected of being an Arab terrorist headquarters." He also states that on 20 May 1947 the Palamach blew up a coffee house in Fajja after the murder of two Jews in Petah Tikva. After November 1947, the dynamiting of houses formed a key component of most Haganah strikes.Morris 2004 p. 343:9 December 1947, the Givati brigade blew up a house in the village of Karatiyya; on 11 December a house was blown up in Haifa's Wadi Rishmiya neighbourhood. On 18 December 1947, two houses were destroyed by the Palmach in a raid on Khisas in the Galilee; On 19 December, the house of the mukhtar of Qazaza was partially demolished to revenge the murder of a Jew; On 26 December, several houses were blown up in Silwan; on 27 December 3 houses were blown up in Yalu; On 4 January 1948 Etzioni blew up the Christian-owned Semiramis Hotel in Jerusalem's Katamon quarter.
Diplomacy failed to reconcile the different points of view on Palestine's future. In early November, the Haganah began mobilizing for war, and issued an order that all men between 17 and 25 register.Shay Hazkani, Dear Palestine: A Social History of the 1948 War, Stanford University Press, 2021 chapter 1.By the eve of the declaration of independence on May 1948, 105,000 men had answered the call of which 25,000 had been drafted into active service. On 18 February 1947, the British announced their withdrawal from the region and on 29 November, the General Assembly of the United Nations voted to recommend the adoption and implementation of the partition plan with the support of the big global powers, though the Arab states opposed it.
Beginning of the civil war (30 November 1947 – 1 April 1948)
In the aftermath of the adoption of Resolution 181(II) by the United Nations General Assembly recommending the adoption and implementation of the Plan of Partition, the manifestations of joy of the Jewish community were counterbalanced by protests by Arabs throughout the country and after 1 December, the Arab Higher Committee enacted a general strike that lasted three days.Yoav Gelber (2006), p. 17
A "wind of violence"This expression is taken from Ilan Pappé (2000), p. 111 took hold of the country, foreboding civil war between the two communities.Benny Morris (2003), p. 65 Murders, reprisals, and counter-reprisals resulted in dozens killed on both sides in the process. The impasse persisted as British forces did not intervene to stop the violence.Ilan Pappé (2000), p. 111Efraïm Karsh (2002), p. 30Benny Morris (2003), p. 101
The first casualties after the adoption of Resolution 181(II) were passengers on a Jewish bus near Kfar Sirkin on 30 November, after an eight-man gang from Jaffa ambushed the bus killing five and wounding others. Half an hour later they ambushed a second bus, southbound from Hadera, killing two more, and shots were fired at Jewish buses in Jerusalem and Haifa. This was said to be a retaliation for the Shubaki family assassination, the killing ten days earlier of five Palestinian Arabs by Lehi near Herzliya.
Irgun and Lehi (the latter also known as the Stern Gang) followed their strategy of placing bombs in crowded markets and bus stops.B. Morris, 2004, The Birth of the Palestinian refugee problem revisited, p. 66 On 30 December, in Haifa, members of the Irgun threw two bombs at a crowd of Arab workers who were queueing in front of a refinery, killing 6 and injuring 42. An angry crowd massacred 39 Jewish people in revenge until British soldiers reestablished calm.The Palestine Post of 31 December 1947: Archives of the newspaper In reprisal, soldiers from the Palmach and the Carmeli brigade attacked the villages of Balad ash-Sheikh and Hawassa. In what became known as the Balad al-Shaykh massacre, between 60 and 70 villagers were killed.
In early 1948, forces under the command of Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni set up a blockade of Jerusalem, with its 100,000 Jewish residents. To counter this, the Yishuv authorities tried to supply the city with convoys of up to 100 armoured vehicles, but the operation became increasingly impractical as casualties in the relief convoys surged. By March, Al-Husayni's tactic had paid off. Almost all the Haganah's armoured vehicles had been destroyed, the blockade was in full operation, and hundreds of Haganah members who had tried to bring supplies into the city were killed.Benny Morris (2003), p. 163 The situation for those who dwelt in the Jewish settlements in the highly isolated Negev and North of Galilee was even more critical.
From January onward, operations became increasingly militarized. In all the mixed zones where both communities lived, particularly Jerusalem and Haifa, there were increasingly violent attacks, riots, reprisals and counter-reprisals. Isolated shootings evolved into all-out battles. Attacks against traffic, for instance, turned into ambushes as one bloody attack led to another.
On 22 February 1948, supporters of Mohammad Amin al-Husayni, with the help of certain British deserters, organized three attacks against the Jewish community. Using car bombs aimed at the headquarters of the Zionist Palestine Post newspaper, the Ben Yehuda St. market, and the backyard of the Jewish Agency's offices, they killed 22, 53, and 13 Jews respectively, a total of 88 fatalities. Hundreds of others were injured.Yoav Gelber (2006), p. 24Efraïm Karsh (2002), p. 36
In retaliation, Lehi put a landmine on the railroad track in Rehovot on which a train from Cairo to Haifa was travelling, killing 28 British soldiers and injuring 35.The Times, 1 March 1948 This was copied on 31 March, close to Caesarea Maritima, which led to the death of 40 people and injured 60, mostly Arab civilians.Newspapers of the time: The Palestine Post, 1 April 1948 and The Times, on the same day, attribute the incident to Lehi.
David Ben-Gurion reorganized the Haganah and made conscription obligatory. Every Jew in the country had to receive military training.
Allied Powers' policies This situation caused the United States to withdraw its support for the partition plan and instead propose a trusteeship for Palestine in March 1948, thus encouraging the Arab League to believe that the Palestinian Arabs, reinforced by the Arab Liberation Army, could quash the partition plan. The British, on the other hand, decided on 7 February 1948 to support Transjordan's annexation of the Arab part of Palestine.Henry Laurens (2005), p. 83
Population evacuations While the Jewish population had received strict orders requiring it to hold its ground everywhere at all costs,Dominique Lapierre et Larry Collins (1971), p. 163 the Arab population was more affected by the general conditions of insecurity to which the country was exposed. Up to 100,000 Arabs, from the urban upper and middle classes in Haifa, Jaffa and Jerusalem, or Jewish-dominated areas, evacuated abroad or to Arab centres eastwards.Benny Morris (2003), p. 67
Fighters and arms from abroad As a consequence of funds raised by Golda Meir from sympathisers in the United States, and Stalin's decision to support the Zionist cause, the Jewish representatives of Palestine were able to sign very important armament contracts in the East. Other Haganah agents recovered stockpiles from World War II, which helped improve the army's equipment and logistics. The Jewish Agency had set aside $28 million for foreign arms purchases alone. By comparison, the Arab Higher Committee's total budget at this time amounted to $2,250,000, equivalent to the Haganah's annual budget in prewar times.Henry Laurens, La Question de Palestine, vol. 3 Fayard 2007 p. 33.
Several Arab Liberation Army regiments intervened in Palestine, each active in a variety of distinct sectors around the different coastal towns. They consolidated their presence in Galilee and Samaria.Yoav Gelber (2006), pp. 51–56 Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni came from Egypt with several hundred men of the Army of the Holy War.