This is a picture of Egyptian and Israeli soldiers taken during the War of Independence in 1948 with a soldier called Ya’akov Yaniv standing in the centre of the photograph. Surprisingly, none of the soldiers are carrying guns.
During the War of Independence, in October 1948, Ya’akov Yaniv was part of the 64th battalion which, along with two other battalions (Moriah and Beit Horon), was sent on a mission to capture Beit Jala. During the mission, six members of the Moriah battalion were killed, and the soldiers retreated having failed to capture their target. Two of the fallen soldiers were left behind on the battlefield.
A month and a half later, Yaniv and a group of Israeli soldiers were observing the enemy from their observation point on the Malha hill, when they saw some Egyptian soldiers descend from their fortress and call out to them that they had two bodies for retrieval. Yaniv was shocked and suspicious but took the risk and, taking his camera with him, he crossed the enemy line, where the Egyptian unit commander showed him the bodies of the two Israeli soldiers. While Yaniv waited for gurneys and blankets for his fallen comrades, the Egyptian commander offered him a cup of tea, and they exchanged war stories.
This symbolised a moment of humanity during the terrible battles of the War of Independence, and Yaniv managed to take photographs of that momentary truce. This is one of these photographs.
After the soldiers returned to their respective sides of the border, Yaniv’s film was confiscated by his commander who considered his actions to have been reckless, endangering both himself and his fellow soldiers. After consultation with Moshe Dayan, a senior officer at the time, the film was returned to Yaniv.
In later years, Yaniv was encouraged to donate the photographs to the National Library of Israel, where they are stored today.
Years afterwards, Yaniv decided to do some research about the soldiers whose bodies he had retrieved. He discovered their names – Zvi Kaner and Shmuel Shimansky – and found out that both men had been Holocaust survivors, the sole survivors of their families. They had been in Israel only a few months before the war broke out and they enlisted in the army.
Every year on the eve of Yom Hazikaron (Memorial Day), Yaniv lays wreathes on their graves at Mt. Herzl.
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War of Independence – Israel’s War of Independence began after the 1947 UN vote on the Partition Plan, dividing Palestine into two separate states: a Jewish and an Arab state. The Jewish side accepted the plan, while the Arab side rejected the plan and launched a war to annihilate the Jewish state. The war was fought along the entire border of Israel. The first stages took place from November 29, 1947 until the creation of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948. During this stage Arabs from within the borders of Israel fought against the Yishuv (the pre-state Jewish community). Control of the roads was crucial, and the Arab fighters had the upper hand, although the Haganah had some success in the weeks leading up to independence. The next stage of the war began after the declaration of the State of Israel. The various military groups that had been operating previously, such as the Haganah, Etzel, and Lehi, were combined to form the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Once Israel was an independent country, the surrounding Arab countries declared war and fought alongside the local Arab militias. The IDF defeated the Arab forces, setting the borders of the state. In 1949, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and Egypt signed armistice agreements with Israel, and the war officially ended on July 20, 1949. The War of Independence spanned the entire country and consisted of 39 military operations. Over 6,000 Israelis were killed and 15,000 were wounded. Many of the soldiers were new immigrants to Israel and Holocaust survivors.
