Plan Dalet
With the Plan Dalet ( Hebrew / תוכנית ד '/ Tochnit Dalet) or Plan D , the General Staff of the Haganah went from defensive to offensive strategy in the course of the Palestine War of 1947-49. The plan was aimed at the conquest of Jewish territory in accordance with the UN Partition Plan for Palestine prior to the invasion of the Arab states during the Palestine War.
The chief of the operations department of the General Staff, Yigael Yadin, was in charge of the planning . The plan was finally formulated in March 1948 and issued on March 10, 1948 to the commanders of the respective brigades.
The plan itself formulated the following goals:
- Securing the Jewish settlements inside and outside the Jewish territory in accordance with the UN Partition Plan for Palestine
- Securing the transport routes necessary for the supply of supplies
- Securing the border areas through which regular Arab troops can be expected to march through
The plan specified operational objectives for the respective brigades and gave the brigade commanders instructions on how to proceed against the Palestinian civilian population, whom the plan saw as a threat to the Israeli war effort. Plan Dalet authorized the brigade commanders to destroy villages and expulsions if the brigade commanders considered this to be militarily necessary. The plan itself was never formally put into effect, but served as a blueprint for the Haganah's operations, which were gradually carried out. Operation Nachshon is seen as the first offensive outlined by Plan Dalet . The repression measures that were planned in the plan against the Arab population were only systematically exhausted in the Upper Galilee. The actions under Plan D are not seen as the main cause of the flight of the Arab population , as the refugee movements began before Operation Nakhon.