1948 War

Civil War in Mandatory Palestine began on November, 30, 1947. From January onwards, operations became increasingly militarized, with the intervention of a number of Arab Liberation Army regiments inside Palestine, each active in a variety of distinct sectors around the different coastal towns. They consolidated their presence in Galilee and Samaria. Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni came from Egypt with several hundred men of the Army of the Holy War.

While the Jewish population had received strict orders requiring them to hold their ground everywhere at all costs, the Arab population was more affected by the general conditions of insecurity to which the country was exposed. Up to 100,000 Palestinians, chiefly those from the upper classes, left the country to seek refuge abroad or to Arab centers eastwards.

Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni, prominent military leader during the Palestinian Civil War.

The 1948 Arab–Israeli War commenced upon the termination of the British Mandate of Palestine in mid-May 1948.

The Israeli Declaration of Independence was made on 14 May 1948 (5 Iyar, 5708), the day the British Mandate expired. It was the official announcement that the new Jewish state named the State of Israel had been formally established in parts of what was known as the British Mandate of Palestine and on land where, in antiquity, the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah had once been.

Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria attacked the state of Israel, leading to fighting mostly on the former territory of the British Mandate and for a short time also on the Sinai Peninsula and southern Lebanon.



The Arab Liberation Army (Jaysh al-Inqadh al-Arabi) was an army of volunteers from Arab countries led by Fawzi al-Qawuqji.















The first contingents of the Arab Liberation Army reached Palestine in January 1948. Between February and May, they suffered a string of defeats in northern Palestine. Between May and October, the Arab Liberation Army controlled parts of western Galilee but by October were completely defeated by Israel's forces.



The Arab Legion actively participated in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. King Abdullah I of Jordan was the commander of the Arab Legion.

Arab Legion commander Abdullah el Tell (far right) with Captain Hikmat Mihyar (far left) pose with Jewish prisoners after the Fall of Gush Etzion

Jordanian (Arab Legion) artillery illuminate Jerusalem in 1948

King Abdullah outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem, 29 May 1948

The dramatically outnumbered Jews managed to defeat first the Arabs of Palestine, then the combined armies of Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and Syria, along with a smattering of Sudanese, Yemenites, Moroccans, Saudis, Lebanese and others.

An Israeli mortar team outside Safsaf in October 1948

Jewish soldiers at Katamon, Jerusalem.

The war concluded with the 1949 Armistice Agreements. The West Bank and the Gaza Strip became distinct geographical units as a result of the 1949 armistice.

Captain Avraham ("Bren") Adan raising the Ink Flag in Umm Rashrash (now Eilat) which marked the end of the war.

The 1948 hostilities witnessed thousands of Palestinians fleeing their homes in Palestine to take refuge in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and neighboring Arab countries.

The hostilities that accompanied the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 led to the flight of some 750,000 refugees from Palestine. Most of these refugees fled to the West Bank, then held by Jordan, to the Gaza Strip, held by Egypt, and to Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and even further afield.

Arab refugees in northern Israel on the road to Lebanon, November 1948.

In December 1947 the Arab League declared the partition of Palestine illegal and resolved to send to Palestine 10,000 rifles and 3,000 volunteers. Taha Al-Hashmi Pasha (right) was appointed General inspector of the Arab League organised army of volunteers, while Fawzi Al- Qawuqji (left) was to train the volunteers in a camp near Damascus.