January: The Arab Liberation Army (ALA) formed by the Arab league to help the Palestinians form a resistance against partition. A surge of violence erupts between Arabs and Jews. The Haganah and Irgun attack Palestinian villages, plant car bombs and destroy several hotels, resulting in the deaths of 61 Arabs. The ALA plant a bomb in a Post Office in Haifa resulting in deaths of six Jews.
14th January: The Haganah sign an arms deal with Czechoslovakia for rifles, machine guns and ammunition.
February: The Haganah continues raids on Palestinian villages. In this month 17 Palestinians are killed and thousands forcibly evicted from their homes in the villages south of Haifa. Prime Minister of Transjordan, Tawfiq Abu al-Huda, and British Foreign Secretary, Ernest Bevin, secretly meet and agree that the Jordanian army will enter Palestine when the British Mandate ends to maintain law and order. This was conditional on the army not entering the Jewish state boundaries as designated by the UN.
March: Continued armed conflict between the Haganah and ALA leads to civilian and military causalities; 52 Palestinian civilian deaths, 12 Jewish civilian deaths, and the deaths of 126 Haganah members. USA calls for a truce between the Jewish Agency and AHC, and for the matter to be discussed further by the UN General Assembly. The Arabs agree to the truce, but is rejected by David Ben-Gurion, stating that the Jewish state will not be formed owing to the UN resolution, but by the might of the Jewish military.
April: “Plan Dalet” launched by the Haganah in order to gain control of all the areas of the Jewish state as well as control of the Jewish settlements around Palestine, regardless of which state they fall in. This operation aimed to destroy vast Palestinian settlements and removal of its inhabitants.
On 9th April, The Irgun and Stern Gang raid the Deir Yassin village, situated to the west of Jerusalem. Victims who survive the massacre say that people were hung from trees and burned, including women, children and elderly. The number of deaths is disputed but a British report to the UN puts the death toll at 250 Arab men, women and children. Palestinians in and around the region begin to flee.
Recent Comments