יומנים > יומן - מלא 11/07/1948

Sunday, July 11, 1948

Only today was I able to return to the office. A steady effort of more than six months without a single day of rest eventually had an impact.

         In the meantime the truce has ended, and we have, as anticipated, entered a decisive phase. So far we have had (easy but important) victories at the main front - Lod and Ramle. The two cities are surrounded from every direction; in the afternoon a rumor was circulating that Ramle had fallen - but this was wishful thinking.

         In Beit Nabala [Deir Tarif] we encountered fierce resistance, and it's still hard to know how and when this battle will end.

         Yigael [Yadin] raised the question of what we'll do after the fall of Lod and Ramle: Will we send the force currently operating at this front to Ramallah-Jerusalem, [or] to Beit Jubrin or southward?

         At the moment the Egyptian pressure in the south is growing stronger, although they've suffered quite a few losses, but [we] too have suffered losses (wounded).

         In the afternoon there was a rumor circulating that the Old City had been captured and Ramle had fallen, but it quickly turned out that this was "premature news."

         In the early evening Yigael phoned me [to say] that we had infiltrated Lod, Beit Nabala had been captured, and we were drawing close to Ramle.

         If these two cities - Lod and Ramle - fall, we'll have to split up the forces of ours that are waging these battles. Presumably a truce will be imposed on us this weekend or next week - and that could turn into the end of the war in practice. We must therefore exploit the few definitive days of war we have left - I estimate until Thursday - Friday [July 15-16] - for the conquest of Latrun and ''Imwas, [in Jerusalem] the liberation of the Old City and conquest and destruction of Sheikh Jarrah, and delivering a blow to Egypt at the crossroads [near Iraq-Suweidan] in the south. Towards this end we'll need to send two armored battalions, at least, to the south. Some of the forces in order to "round out" the conquests, the rest to Latrun and Jerusalem - to deliver a quick blow to the Legion and Egypt around Jerusalem. If - and this is no small "if" because there might be another blow coming our way before then, as there is one puzzle: where is the Legion? - we succeed with this plan before the truce, then it will be a less-than-complete victory (and there is no complete victory without the conquest of Nablus and massive bombing of Cairo, Alexandria, Damascus, and Beirut), but [it will still be] a decisive improvement of our military situation and a major political victory.

         - In the afternoon a government meeting.

         - In the evening a meeting with the Negev Committee.