Editing 1949 Armistice Agreements (section)

=== With Egypt ===
On 6 January 1949, [[Ralph Bunche]] announced that Egypt had finally consented to start talks with Israel on an armistice. The talks began on the Greek island of [[Rhodes]] on 12 January. Shortly after their commencement, Israel agreed to the release of a besieged Egyptian brigade in [[Al-Faluja|Faluja]], but soon rescinded their agreement.<ref>{{cite journal | author = Hilde Henriksen Waage | title = The Winner Takes All: The 1949 Island of Rhodes Armistice Negotiations Revisited | journal = Middle East Journal | volume = 65 | year = 2011 | issue = 2 | pages = 279–304 | doi=10.3751/65.2.15| s2cid = 145309069 }}</ref> At the end of the month, the talks floundered. Israel demanded that Egypt withdraw all its forces from the former area of Mandate Palestine.{{Citation needed|date=July 2012|reason=the words Mandate Palestine does not appear in the Armistice Agreement}} Egypt insisted that Arab forces withdraw to the positions which they held on 14 October 1948, as per the Security Council Resolution S/1070 of 4 November 1948, and that the Israeli forces withdraw to positions north of the [[Ashkelon|Majdal]]–[[Hebron]] road.

The deadlock culminated on 12 February 1949 with the murder of [[Hassan al-Banna]], leader of the Islamist group [[Muslim Brotherhood]]. Israel threatened to abandon the talks, whereupon the United States appealed to the parties to bring them to a successful conclusion.

On 24 February the ''Israel–Egypt Armistice Agreement'' was signed in [[Rhodes]].<ref name="EgyptIsraelArmistice1949" /> The main points of the armistice agreement were:
* The Armistice Demarcation Line is not to be construed in any sense as a political or territorial boundary, and is delineated without prejudice to rights, claims and positions of either Party to the Armistice as regards ultimate "settlement of the Palestine question".
* The armistice demarcation line was drawn for the most part along the 1922 international border between Egypt and [[Mandatory Palestine]], except near the [[Mediterranean Sea]], where Egypt remained in control of a strip of land along the coast, which became known as the [[Gaza Strip]].
* The Egyptian forces besieged in the ''[[Faluja Pocket]]'' were allowed to return to Egypt with their weapons, and the area was handed over to Israeli military control.<ref>mfa.gov.il [http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Foreign+Relations/Israels+Foreign+Relations+since+1947/1947-1974/Israel-Egypt+Armistice+Agreement.htm Article IV. 3. "The provisions of this Agreement are dictated exclusively by military considerations and are valid only for the period of the Armistice"]</ref>
* A zone on both sides of the border around [[El Audja el Hafir, history of Palestine|'Uja al-Hafeer]] was to be demilitarized, and became the seat of the bilateral armistice committee.