In July 1948, during the 1948 Palestine war, the Palestinian towns of Lydda (also known as Lod) and Ramle were captured by the Israel Defense Forces and their residents (totalling 50,000–70,000 people) were violently expelled. The expulsions occurred as part of the broader 1948 Palestinian expulsions and the Nakba. Hundreds of Palestinians were killed in multiple mass killings, including the Lydda massacre, and in what is sometimes known as the Lydda death march. The two Arab towns, lying outside the area designated for a Jewish state in the UN Partition Plan of 1947, and inside the area set aside for an Arab state in Palestine,Roza El-Eini,Mandated Landscape: British Imperial Rule in Palestine, 1929–1948, Routledge 2006 p. 436The Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, Cambridge University Press 2004, p. 425. were subsequently incorporated into the new State of Israel and repopulated with Jewish immigrants.That most of the immigrants to Lydda and Ramle were from Asia and North Africa, see Golan 2003. That refugees were settled in the empty homes to stop them from being reclaimed, see Morris 2008, p. 308, and Yacobi 2009, p. 45. After their conquest the towns were given Hebrew names of Lod and Ramla.For population figures, see Morris 2004, p. 425, 434. He writes that, in July 1948 before the invasion, Lydda and Ramle had a population of 50,000–70,000, 20,000 of whom were refugees from Jaffa and the surrounding area (p. 425). All were expelled, except for a few elderly or sick people, some Christians, and some who were retained to work; others managed to sneak back in, so that by mid-October 1948 there were around 2,000 Palestinians living in both towns (p. 434). For the name change, see Yacobi 2009, p. 29. Yacobi writes that Lod was Lydda's biblical name. Palestinians called Lydda al-Ludd. Lydda was the Latin form of its name, which it was widely known by. See Sharon 1983, p. 798. Ramle can also be written as Ramleh; it known as Ramla by the Israelis, and should not be confused with Ramallah, the administrative center of the Palestinian National Authority.

The exodus, constituting the biggest expulsion of the war,Benny Morris, The Palestine Refugee Problem Revisited, Cambridge University Press 2004 p. 4. took place at the end of a truce period, when fighting resumed, prompting Israel to try to improve its control over the Jerusalem road and its coastal route which were under pressure from the Jordanian Arab Legion along with Egyptian and Palestinian forces. From the Israeli perspective, the conquest of the towns, designed, according to Benny Morris, "to induce civilian panic and flight",Benny Morris, The Palestine Refugee Problem Revisited, Cambridge University Press 2004 p. 425. averted an Arab threat to Tel Aviv, thwarted an Arab Legion advance by clogging the roads with refugees—the Yiftah Brigade was ordered to strip them of "every watch, piece of jewelry, or money, or valuables"Benny Morris, "Was Israeli Looting in '48 part of a Broader Policy to Expel Arabs?", Haaretz 3 June 2021.—to force the Arab Legion to assume an additional logistical burden with the arrival of masses of indigent refugees that would undermine its military capacities, and helped demoralise nearby Arab cities.Rabin, Yitzhak; The Rabin Memoirs. University of California Press, 1996, p. 383: "Allon and I held a consultation. I agreed that it was essential to drive the inhabitants out. We took them on foot toward the Ben Horon road, assuming that the Arab Legion would be obliged to look after them, thereby shouldering logistic difficulties which would burden its fighting capacity, making things easier for us."

Once the Israelis were in control of the towns, an expulsion order signed by Yitzhak Rabin was issued to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) stating, "1. The inhabitants of Lydda must be expelled quickly without attention to age....". Ramle's residents were bussed out, while the people of Lydda were forced to walk miles during a summer heat wave to the Arab front lines, where the Arab Legion tried to provide shelter and supplies.Morris 2004, pp. 432–434. Also see Gilbert 2008, pp. 218–219. A number of the refugees died during the exodus from exhaustion and dehydration, with estimates ranging from a handful to a figure of 500.For the number of refugees who died during the march: Morris 1989, pp. 204–211: "Quite a few refugees died – from exhaustion, dehydration and disease." Morris 2003, p. 177: "a handful, and perhaps dozens, died of dehydration and exhaustion." Morris 2004, p. 433: "Quite a few refugees died on the road east," attributing a figure of 335 dead to Muhammad Nimr al Khatib, who Morris writes was working from hearsay. Henry Laurens, La Question de Palestine, vol.3, Fayard 2007 p. 145 states that Aref al-Aref set the figure at 500, among an estimated 1300 who died either in fighting in Lydda or on the march that ensued."Le nombre total de morts se monte à 1,300 : 800 lors des combats de la ville, le reste dans l'exode.". Khalidi 1998 , pp. 80–98: 350 dead, citing an estimate from Aref al-Aref. Nur Masalha 2003, p. 47 writes that 350 died. For the IDF and Ben-Gurion's analysis of the effect of the conquest of the towns and the expulsions, see Morris 2004, pp. 433–434.The death toll in Lydda: Morris 2004, p. 426: 11 July—Six dead and 21 wounded on the Israeli side, and "dozens of Arabs (perhaps as many as 200)". Morris 2004, p. 452, footnote 68: Third Battalion intelligence puts the figure at 40 Palestinians dead, but perhaps referring only to the numbers they had killed themselves. Morris 2004, p. 428: 12 July—Israeli troops were ordered to shoot at anyone seen on the streets: during that incident, 3–4 Israelis were killed and around a dozen wounded. On the Arab side, 250 dead and many wounded, according to the IDF.

Background

1948 Palestine war

After 30 years of intercommunal conflict between Jews and Arabs in Mandatory Palestine, on 29 November 1947, the United Nations voted to partition the territory into a Jewish and an Arab state, with Lydda and Ramle to form part of the latter. After the announcement of the UN Partition Plan civil war broke out between the communities. British authority broke down as the civil war spread, taking care of little more than the evacuation of their own forces, although they maintained an air and sea blockade. After the first 4.5 months of fights, Jewish militias had conquered the main mixed cities of the country, expelling and causing the flight of 300,000-350,000 Palestinians.

The British Mandate expired on 14 May 1948, and the State of Israel declared its independence.Morris 2008, p. 37ff. Transjordan, Egypt, Syria and Iraq intervened by sending expeditionary forces that entered former Mandatory Palestine and engaged Israeli forces. Six weeks of fighting followed, after which none of the belligerents had won the upper hand. After four weeks of truce, during which Israeli forces reinforced whereas Arab ones suffered under the embargo, the fighting resumed, which is when the attack on Lydda and Ramle took place.

Strategic importance of Lydda and Ramle

The Palestinian towns of Lydda and Ramle were strategically important because they sat at the intersection of Palestine's main north–south and east–west roads. Palestine's main railway junction and its airport (now Ben Gurion International Airport) were in Lydda, and the main source of Jerusalem's water supply was 15 kilometers away.For Lydda's age, see Schwartz 1991, p. 39. According to Christian legend, Lydda was the birthplace and burial ground of Saint George (ca. 270–303 CE), the patron saint of England; see Sharon 1983, p. 799. Sharon (p. 798) writes that the town may date back to King Thutmos III of Egypt. Also see Gordon 1907, p. 3. For Ramle, see Golan 2003. Jewish and Arab fighters had been attacking each other on roads near the towns since hostilities broke out in December 1947. Israeli geographer Arnon Golan writes that Palestinian Arabs had blocked Jewish transport to Jerusalem at Ramle, causing Jewish transportation to shift to a southern route. Israel had launched several ground or air attacks on Ramle and Latrun in May 1948, and Israel's prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, developed what Benny Morris calls an obsession with the towns; he wrote in his diary that they had to be destroyed, and on 16 June referred to them during an Israeli cabinet meeting as the "two thorns". Lydda's local Arab authority, officially subordinated to the Arab Higher Committee, assumed local civic and military powers. The records of Lydda's military command discuss military training, constructing obstacles and trenches, requisitioning vehicles and assembling armoured cars armed with machine-guns, and attempts at arms procurement. In April 1948, Lydda had become an arms supply center, and provided military training and security coordination for the neighboring villagers.

Operation Dani

Israel subsequently launched Operation Dani to secure the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem road and neutralise any threat to Tel Aviv from the Jordanian Arab Legion, which was stationed in Ramallah and Latrun, with a number of men in Lydda.Morris 2004, pp. 423–424. On 7 July the IDF appointed Yigal Allon to head the operation, and Yitzhak Rabin, who became Israel's prime minister in 1974, as his operations officer; both had served in the Palmach, an elite fighting force of the pre-Israel Jewish community in Palestine. The operation was carried out between 9 July 1948, the end of the first truce in the Arab-Israeli war, and 18 July, the start of the second truce, a period known in Israeli historiography as the . Morris writes that the IDF assembled its largest force ever: the Yiftach Brigade; the Eighth Armoured Brigade's 82nd and 89th Battalions; three battalions of Kiryati and Alexandroni infantry men; an estimated 6,000 men with around 30 artillery pieces. (number of men)For the launching of Operation Dani and the forces assembled, see Morris 2008, p. 286. For the hiring of Allon and Rabin, see Shipler, The New York Times, 23 October 1979. For the period known as the Ten Days, see Morris 2008, pp. 273ff.

Lydda's defenses

In July 1948 Lydda and Ramle had a joint population of 50,000–70,000 Palestinian Arabs, 20,000 of them refugees from Jaffa and elsewhere. Several Palestinian Arab towns had already fallen to Jewish or Israeli advances since April, but Lydda and Ramle had held out. There are differing views as to how well-defended the towns were. In January 1948, John Bagot Glubb, the commander of the Arab Legion, had toured Palestinian Arab towns, including Lydda and Ramle, urging them to prepare to defend themselves. The Legion had distributed barbed wire and as many weapons as could be spared.Morris 2003, p. 118.

Palestinian historian Walid Khalidi writes that just 125 Legionnaires from the Fifth Infantry Company were in Lydda—the Arab Legion numbered 6,000 in all—and that the rest of the town's defense consisted of civilian residents acting under the command of a retired Arab Legion sergeant. According to Morris, a number of Arab Legion soldiers, including 200–300 Bedouin volunteers, had arrived in Lydda and Ramle in April, and a company-sized force had set itself up in the former Palestine Police Force stations in Lydda and on the Lydda-Ramle road, with armoured cars and other weapons. He writes that there were 150 Legionnaires in the town in June, though the Israelis believed there were up to 1,500. An Arab Legion officer was appointed military governor of both towns, signaling the desire of Abdullah I of Jordan to stake a claim in the parts of Palestine allotted by the UN to a Palestinian Arab state, but Glubb advised him that the Legion was overstretched and could not hold the towns. As a result, Abdullah ordered the Legion to assume a defensive position only, and most of the Legionnaires in Lydda withdrew during the night of 11–12 July.Morris 2008, pp. 286, 289.