Editing Latrun (section)

===1948 and 1967 Arab–Israeli Wars===
{{main|Battles of Latrun (1948)}}
[[File:Gun on roof of Latrun pollice station.jpg|thumb|[[Arab Legion]] gunners on the roof of Latrun police station, 1948]]

The road from the coastal plain to Jerusalem was blocked after the British withdrew and handed the fort of Latrun over to [[Jordan]]'s [[Arab Legion]]. The Arab Legionnaires used the fort to shell Israeli vehicles traveling on the road below, effectively imposing a [[Battle for Jerusalem (1948)|military siege on Jerusalem]] and the Jewish residents there, despite that the United Nations plan was to keep Jerusalem as an international zone with neither Jordan, Israel, nor the Palestinian [[Arab Higher Committee]] having sovereignty over it.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historycentral.com/Israel/1948WarofIndependance.html |title=1948-Israel War of Independence|website=History Central|author= Schulman, Marc |access-date=4 April 2018}}</ref>

On 24 May 1948, ten days after the [[Israeli Declaration of Independence]] per the [[United Nations General Assembly]]'s Resolution 181<ref>{{cite web|url=https://undocs.org/A/RES/181(II)|title=A/RES/181(II) - E|website=undocs.org|access-date=3 April 2018}}</ref> and the Arab assaults against Israel which followed, the Jordanian Legion's fort was assaulted by combined forces of Israel's newly created [[7th Armored Brigade (Israel)|7th Armored Brigade]], and a battalion of the [[Alexandroni Brigade]]. [[Ariel Sharon]], then a platoon commander, was wounded at Latrun along with many of his soldiers. The assault, codenamed [[Battles of Latrun (1948)#Operation Bin Nun Alef (24–25 May)|Operation Bin Nun Alef (24–25 May)]], was unsuccessful, sustaining heavy casualties. On 31 May 1948, a second attack against the fort, codenamed [[Battles of Latrun (1948)#Operation Bin Nun Bet|Operation Bin Nun Bet]], also failed, although the outer defenses had been breached.

Many of the Israeli fighters were young [[The Holocaust|Holocaust]] survivors who had just arrived in the country and had minimal military training.<ref>[http://www.mideastweb.org/latrun.htm Lessons of the Battles of Latrun] MidEastWeb</ref> The official casualty figure for both battles was 139.{{citation needed|date=February 2008}}

[[File:Burma Road 1948.jpg|thumb|250px|A bulldozer tows a truck on the "[[Burma Road (Israel)|Burma Road]]" to Jerusalem, June 1948]]
To circumvent the blocked road, a makeshift camouflaged road through the seemingly impassable mountains towards Jerusalem was constructed under the command of [[Mickey Marcus|Mickey (David) Marcus]].{{Citation needed|date=November 2008}} This bypassed the main routes overlooked by Latrun and was named the [[Burma Road (Israel)|Burma Road]] after its [[Burma Road|emergency supply-line namesake]] between Kunming (China) and Lashio (Burma), improvised by the Allies in [[World War II]]. By 10 June 1948, the road was fully operational, putting an end to the month-old Arab blockade.<ref>Morris, 2008, pp. 230–231</ref>

On 2 August, the [[United Nations Conciliation Commission|Truce Commission]] drew the attention of the [[Security Council]] to the Arabs' refusal to allow water and food supplies to reach Jewish West [[Jerusalem]]. After much negotiation, it was agreed that United Nations convoys would transport supplies, but the convoys often came under sniper fire. Towards the end of August, the situation improved. The destruction of the Latrun pumping station made it impossible for water in adequate quantities to flow to West Jerusalem, but the [[Israelis]] built an auxiliary small-capacity water pipeline along the "Burma Road", which provided a minimum amount of water.<ref>[http://domino.un.org/unispal.nsf/9a798adbf322aff38525617b006d88d7/ab14d4aafc4e1bb985256204004f55fa!OpenDocument UN Doc A/648] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071006021434/http://domino.un.org/unispal.nsf/9a798adbf322aff38525617b006d88d7/ab14d4aafc4e1bb985256204004f55fa!OpenDocument |date=2007-10-06 }} of 16 September 1948 Progress Report of the United Nations Mediator [[Count Folke Bernadotte]] on Palestine Submitted to the Secretary-General for Transmission to the Members of the United Nations.</ref>

After [[Operation Danny]], Israeli forces anticipated a Jordanian counterattack,<ref>Pappé, 2006, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=yjeXQVmGrwcC&pg=PA166 166]</ref> possibly from Latrun, but King Abdullah remained within the bounds of the tacit agreement made with the Jewish Agency and kept his troops at Latrun.<ref>Pappé, 2006b, p. [https://books.google.com/books?id=zAJZCKAwtPMC&pg=PA140 140]</ref>

In the [[1949 Armistice Agreements]], the fort remained a [[Salients, re-entrants and pockets|salient]] under [[Jordanian annexation of the West Bank|Jordanian control]], which was in turn surrounded by a perimeter of [[no man's land]]. Under the cease-fire agreement, [[Jordan]] was not to disrupt Israeli travelers using this road; in practice, constant sniper attacks led Israel to build a [[bypass road]] around the bulge.

In the [[Six-Day War]] of 1967, Latrun was captured by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), and the main road to Jerusalem was reopened and made safe for travel. 
[[Image:Latrun-Castle-S-059-Fort.jpg|thumb|Yad La-Shiryon museum.]]

{{blockquote|The village of Latrun, our first objective, was built around the ruins of an old [[Crusader castle]] on the crest of a hill overlooking the Jerusalem road. On the southern slopes of the olive groves stretched down the road, while at the bottom of the western slope sat a big Trappist monastery.<ref>[[Ariel Sharon]]. page 52 Warrior: An Autobiography</ref>}}

[[File:Sculpture outside outside the Latrun Trappist Monastery in Jerusalem.jpg|thumb|Artwork outside the Latrun Trappist Monastery in Jerusalem]]