This is a photograph taken in 1948 of a man and a woman standing on a road next to an armoured bus during the War of Independence. The woman is wearing a dress, a coat, a hat, and a fur scarf. The man is wearing a uniform and a knitted cap and scarf. He was probably a member of the Palmach or one of the other Jewish defense forces guarding convoys during the War of Independence. Behind the bus are sand dunes and some vegetation.
The War of Independence broke out on May 15, 1948, the day after the UN passed the Partition Plan. It was initiated by local Arab forces who opposed the UN resolution for the establishment of a Jewish State. It was characterized, among other things, by attacks on Jewish civilian transportation in Israel. To protect the civilian passengers, armoured trucks and buses travelled in convoys that were protected by men and women fighters.
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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.
Convoys During the War of Independence – The first stage of Israel’s War of Independence began after the UN vote for partition and the establishment of a Jewish State on November 29, 1947. From this time and until the British left the country on May 14, 1948 Arab militias attacked Jewish transportation around Israel. Travel to Jerusalem, the Negev, and the Galilee settlements was especially difficult, effectively isolating many cities and villages from the rest of the country. At first, the Haganah provided tight security for a few cars to travel. Later, they introduced a convoy system whereby armoured vehicles that were more resistant to fire from light weapons traveled together. In March 1948, the situation worsened and convoys were attacked throughout the country. An exceptionally dangerous stretch of road was the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem route. Due to the location of Arab villages, the section between Latrun and Sha’ar Hagai and areas around the Castel were extremely dangerous. A convoy taking medical and military supplies and medical personnel to the Hadassah hospital complex on Mt. Scopus, which was cut off from the rest of Jerusalem, was ambushed on April 13, 1948, killing 78 people including doctors, nurses, patients, Haganah fighters, and one British soldier. On 18, May 1948, the Arab Legion conquered the fort at Latrun, which overlooked the road to Jerusalem. This made it almost impossible for convoys to get through to bring much needed supplies to the besieged residents of Jerusalem. The Haganah, under the supervision of American General Mickey Marcus, secretly widened a small, hidden path that circumvented the main Jerusalem-Tel Aviv road and made it accessible to trucks, thus providing necessary provisions for Jerusalem. The road, nicknamed the Burma Road, was fully operational from June 14 and served as the sole supply route to Jerusalem for several months. Tragically, on June 10, a few hours before the ceasefire, Mickey Marcus, who didn’t speak much Hebrew, was killed by an Israeli sentry when he failed to respond to the Hebrew request to say the password.