יומנים > יומן - מלא 31/05/1948

Monday, May 31, 1948

Tonight Ashdot[-Ya'akov] and Sha'ar HaGolan were attacked. In the north preparations for invasion are underway. Our airplanes bombed Lod and Ramle. Kiriati was late but managed to capture a few frontline positions, although they encountered heavy fire.

       There were counterattacks in Lajjun and Jarmaq [Mount Meron] - which were repelled. Tira [in the Sharon plain, north of Ramat HaKovesh] was not conquered, although 500 shells were fired. No news from Givati. There's an undecipherable cable from [Marcus] Stone. Yigal [Allon] is leaving the north but requesting rest for his tired men, and also uniforms and weapons for his battalion, because he left everything in the Galilee.

       Our planes bombed Latrun and Imwas. [Cargo planes] brought additional weapons to Lod [apparently a slip of the pen; should be - Ekron]. Before morning they were supposed to bomb Tulkarm. In the north they bombed villages (Tzipori [Saffuriya], Peki'in), a unit under Yigal [Allon] invaded Lebanon near [Manara - a blank space in the original], in the vicinity of Kedesh.

       James [Michael Ben-Gal] believes that [the Arabs in] Ramle and Lod have 2,000-3,000 fighters; they have a command; there's news of one cannon in Lod and one in Ramle. They have 3" mortars but mainly used light weapons.

       Jon Kimche [a journalist, co-author of Both Sides of the Hill: Britain and the Palestine War] arrived from Latrun. He'd spent all night there. After midnight contact was lost with Prolov's battalion (which according to information from Harel had "retreated" from above).

       Haim [Laskov] broke through to Latrun by vehicle with his men, burned and annihilated about 150 Arabs [with flamethrowers], but the two battalions did not help out; they were frightened by the enemy shelling and remained in place, which forced Haim to leave Latrun. Our losses are not many: about ten killed, and about thirty injured. The jeeps did not go up, and apparently stayed in Hulda.

       From the other fronts:

       Yesterday at four Yigal [Allon]'s men, stationed at Malkiyya, noticed suspicious movement from the direction of Blida [near Kibbutz Yiftah today]. A patrol of three armored vehicles set out, and 4 Lebanese were killed and 10 injured. A number of houses were set on fire - the patrol spent several hours patrolling along the Lebanese road from Blida to a kilometer from Aitaroun (?) [in Lebanon]. The Lebanese fired from far away. The patrol returned to base safely. Our planes bombed Alma and Ras al-Ahmar [today - Har Admon, northeast of Gush Halav].

       Golani reports that the Lajjun police was captured by Battalion 14 units and a Battalion 12 company with the assistance of cannons and an armored column. The larger armored vehicle that we took in Tsemah was damaged by two direct hits, but they manage to extract it. The [Iraqi] enemy counterattacked by cannon, shelling the Afula-Lajjun Road. We have a number of injured, two severely.

       Enemy planes bombed Merhavia and Afula yesterday morning. 2 dead in Merhavia. Our planes bombed Tzipori [Saffuriya].

       Nothing new on the Tsemah front.

       Harel reports that the enemy is using poisoned mortar shells. Two men were scratched by shards and died of poisoning 6 hours later.

       More from Golani (from yesterday): Sha'ar HaGolan was shelled by tanks and three armored vehicles that approached the kibbutz. Ashdot-Ya'akov was shelled by three armored vehicles that approached the kibbutz from across the Yarmuk. A transformer was hit, causing a power outage. In the evening Lajjun was again attacked by armored vehicles, cannons, and planes - the attack was repelled.

       Givati reports on a convoy that left for Negba and returned without incident. Our scouts found the Be'er Tuvia-Sawafir [today - Shafir] road clear of people.

       Etsiyyoni - nothing happened in the past 24 hours, aside from the usual shelling.

       From the 7th Brigade - according to an Arab POW, there are 150 Legionnaires in Latrun, with 5 armored vehicles and one cannon; the local headquarters is in Imwas; in Yalu there are 150 soldiers and a few cannons; the unit in Yalu is under the command of Imwas. There are reinforcements in Beit Nuba. In Ramallah - the Legion's Jerusalem front headquarters. During our bombardment all the bombs landed in the city and caused damage.

       A delegation of Revisionists came to see me: Dr. [Aryeh] Altman, [Dr. Jacob] Rubin, and [Dr. Yitzhak] Bukspan. They came A) to congratulate me, B) to inform me that they were joining the State Council, C) to ask that they be included in the state services. I thanked them for the congratulations; regarding the state services I told them that there's a government committee of 4 handling this, and that they should contact the Secretary of the Government.

       At six Bernadotte - the peace envoy [UN mediator] - came to see me, accompanied by [his assistant] Dr. Bunche. A cease-fire would make it possible to talk about peace. He will conduct negotiations on peace even if there's no cease-fire. If there's agreement on a truce - the Arab forces would not be allowed to move from their positions. Food would be brought to Jerusalem by the Red Cross - he himself wears a Red Cross [on his uniform]. He's aware of the difficulties of overseeing the import and export of weapons in Arab countries and Israel, but hopes to overcome the difficulties in time. Entry by Abdallah into [Jewish] Jerusalem after the truce would be considered a violation of the truce. Tomorrow he leaves for Haifa to discover the Legion's gathering place and then he will approach the Arabs. After that he'll return to Tel Aviv.

       - At eight Shlomo [Shamir] and Haim [Laskov] arrived from Latrun, Yigal [Allon] arrived from the Galilee. After a lengthy consultation we decided that Yigal would join Givati and Nahum [Sarig] in attacking the Egyptian column [in Ashdod] with the aim of destroying it; we'll bring Yigal's second battalion [from the Galilee] - in the event that there's no truce, and tomorrow we'll plan the operation to liberate Jerusalem.

       We decided to bomb Amman and Cairo.

       - I was visited by a delegation from the Tel Adashim Bloc. They're asking that the rifles [collected from the settlements for operation "Nahshon" and formation of the brigades] be returned and that the settlements be given [heavy] machine guns. I promised the first; the second is nearly impossible.

       In Givati's opinion the Egyptian column has 2,000-3,000 soldiers, and many cannons, [heavy] machine guns, and tanks. Twice yesterday they received orders to mobilize, and for some reason resisted. One of our men accidentally entered Ashdod - and got out safely. He saw that our bombardment had scared them. The column is generally agitated, but it has strong firepower.

       Givati is planning to capture Yavne tonight.

       Haim Laskov - who hasn't slept now for 8 days and 8 nights - provided information about Latrun:

       [Ya'akov] Prolov's battalion was supposed to go to Yalu. Haim, according to plan, went to the village of Latrun, to the monastery, and to the police. He has 90-100 casualties, 60 of whom are no longer in our hands (they're killed, injured, missing), 4 half-tracks remained in the police [compound]. Most of the drivers were injured or killed.

            One company [under the command] of Zvika [Hurwitz-Gilat] went with [Ya'akov] Prolov up into the hills (about 500 men). The jeeps with the heavy weapons didn't go [to Jerusalem] because one jeep turned over. The armored battalion still has 200 men - but they're not fit for battle right now. During the night 500 shells were fired at Latrun; had the infantry advanced they would've conquered the place. 2 companies are stationed in Beit Jiz and Beit Susin.