On May 13, 1948, a day before the state of Israel was proclaimed, the Haganah launched Operation Shfifon (Hebrew: מבצע שפיפון, lit. Operation Cerastes Cerastes) with the aim of capturing the British outposts in the Old City of Jerusalem and preventing the Arab forces from taking control of them first.
The military operation of the Haganah in the 1948 Israel War of Independence and the ensuing Operation Kilshon lasted for several days. The Haganah implemented the plan to take over the British installations in Jerusalem abandoned as the British left Palestine on May 14-15 1948. Such an eventuality had long been anticipated, and plans prepared called Operation Shfifon ('hornedviper' some translate it as 'Serpent') and quickly followed by Operation Kilshon. The plan involved taking over the positions of the evacuating British troops and its purpose was to connect isolated Jewish communities in southern Jerusalem. [1]
The operation had three prongs of attack, the North, Center and South. The northern prong captured territory in the neighborhood of Musrara and the Mandelbaum gate but failed to take Jaffa gate, but did take Zion gate and broke the siege into the Old City Jewish quarter but the Arab Legion pushed them out. The Center prong captured the British government fortified compound, "Bevingrad," which the British had fortified in the center of the city with rolls of barbed which the force had to cut with wire cutters on the night of May 14. The Southern forces captured the Allenby and El Alamein camps and linked up the isolated Yemin Moshe neighborhood.
Contents
See also
- List of battles and operations in the 1948 Palestine war
- 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine
- List of Arab towns and villages depopulated during the 1948 Palestinian exodus
References
- ^ O Jerusalem! by Larry Collins, Dominique Lapierre Publisher: Simon & Schuster page 367
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Coordinates: 31°46′33.77″N 35°13′52.94″E / 31.7760472°N 35.2313722°E