Operation Dani
The operation Dani was an Israeli military operation during the Palestine War . It took place after the first truce from July 9th to 19th, 1948 and led to the conquest of the region around the small towns of Lydda and Ramla. The ultimate goal of the offensive, the complete evacuation of the road from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, could not be achieved by the Israeli forces.
The conquered area was not seriously defended by the Arab Legion for military reasons. As part of the conquest, the Arab population around Lydda and Ramla had to flee, partly initiated by the Israeli armed forces .
prehistory
After the first truce between Israel and the Arab states, the situation presented on the Central Front from the perspective of the Israeli leadership by growing. In the Battles of Latrun , the Jordanian war party had the road link from Tel Aviv can maintain to Jerusalem their blockade, even if the Road has meanwhile been replaced in its function by the newly built Burma Road under Israeli control. The Israeli leadership expected an attack against Tel Aviv from the area around Lydda and Ramla, as this frontal promontory represented a stepping stone in this direction of attack. The Israeli reconnaissance mistakenly located 1250 to 1500 members of the Arab Legion in the area.
The Israeli commander Yigal Allon developed a plan of attack, which first the capture of Lydda and Ramla and then and the Israeli army pulled together their largest concentration of troops to date. The main burden of the fighting was to be carried by the Palmach's Harel and Yiftah Brigade . The 88th and 89th Battalions of the 8th Brigade were also assigned to the operation, as well as other battalions of the Kiryati and Alexandroni Brigades. The Israeli forces had around 30 artillery pieces .
At the beginning of the war, the Jordanian commander, John Bagot Glubb , had agreed with the king not to seriously defend Lydda and Ramla. His justification was the lack of forces, which did not allow the Legion to defend the region with any chance of success. That is why there was only one company of the Legion with 150 soldiers in Lydda and Ramla. These were supplemented by several hundred armed residents and irregular tribal associations.
course
On July 10, the attack on Lydda and Ramla began with a pincer movement from north and south. Israeli soldiers reached Ramla on July 11, but were prevented from entering the city by defense lawyers. The Legion troops received the order to withdraw and after an Israeli disruptive attack on the center of Lydda and another attack on Ramla, the morale of the Arab irregulars there collapsed on July 12th. The Israeli offensive gradually lost speed in the following days. The Arab Legion responded with a counterattack by the Legion's 1st Brigade east of Lydda and Ramla. On the night of June 15-16, Israeli forces, supported by two Cromwell tanks , tried to take the police fort in Latrun, but they failed because of the resistance of the Legion forces there. In the last days of the offensive, the Israeli forces made no more significant gains. The Israeli leadership came to the conclusion that the goal of taking Latrun and possibly Ramallah could not be achieved. The fighting came to a standstill on July 19, 1948 following UN demands for a renewed ceasefire.
consequences
During the fighting, there was collateral damage, and a disturbance attack by the Legion in Ramla, which was newly occupied by the Israelis, resulted in around 250 civilian deaths as a result of Israeli fire, according to Israeli information. On the same day David Ben Gurion gave the order to Allon to expel the civilian population of Lydda and Ramla on the grounds that the residents of the city had collaborated with the war opponents Israelis. The evictions in Lydda were carried out by units of the Yiftah and Alexandron Brigades on July 13th and 14th. The residents had to leave their hometown on foot towards the Arab-controlled area. There was occasional abuse and looting by Israeli soldiers. The residents of Ramla were first taken a part of the way from the city by bus before they had to start walking towards the Arab-controlled area. The able-bodied men in both places were arrested as prisoners of war. Allon coordinated the evacuation routes in such a way that, in his opinion, they would hinder the Legion's counterattack as well as possible. The Arab side found it overwhelmed to look after the refugees. So the mayor of Ramallah turned to the king to evacuate the refugees from his city because he could not take care of them. There are eyewitness reports from both parties, reports of numerous deaths among refugees due to hunger, lack of water and lack of accommodation. Even before Ben Gurion's order, the front commander had given an order to the fighting units to facilitate the escape of the Arab population.
During the fighting there was a documented case of eighteen dead Israeli soldiers, whose bodies were mutilated and some of them showed signs of torture. The Israeli leadership attributed this to irregular Arab forces.
The defeat at Latrun and the Legion's withdrawal caused criticism of the Jordanian political and military leadership among both Palestinians and residents of the East Bank. Unprecedented demonstrations took place in Nablus , As-Salt and Amman . In Nablus, Iraqi troops had to use armed force to restore order after the Haschemite governor was driven out. Lydda and Ramla's lack of defense was viewed by the public as treason and was attributed to Glubb. The royal court did not defend its supreme military commander and presented this as a decision not agreed with the king.
After the war, the Co- chairman of the Mapam party Meir Ya'ari criticized the flow of refugees kicking off with the aim of hindering hostile military operations.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Benny Morris: 1948 - A History of the First Arab-Israeli War. New Haven 2008; Pp. 286-293
- ↑ Alexander B. Downes: Targeting Civilians in War. Ithaca, 2008, p. 200
literature
- Golan, Arnon. "Lydda and Ramle: from Palestinian-Arab to Israeli towns, 1948-67," Middle Eastern Studies, October 1, 2003