Editing Irgun (section)

==1948 Palestine War==
{{Main|1948 Palestine War}}
[[File:Menachem Begin inspecting Irgun members 1948.jpg|thumb|[[Menachem Begin]] (left) inspecting members of the Irgun in Jerusalem, August 1948.]]
[[File:PikiWiki Israel 1102 Israel Defense Forces לוחמי האצ"ל בשעת שיעור נשק.jpg|thumb|Irgun fighters training in 1947]]
[[File:Mitzad.jpg|thumb|Irgun parade in 1948]]

UNSCOP's conclusion was a unanimous decision to end the British mandate, and a majority decision to divide [[Mandatory Palestine]] (the land west of the [[Jordan River]]) between a Jewish state and an Arab state. During the UN's deliberations regarding the committee's recommendations the Irgun avoided initiating any attacks, so as not to influence the UN negatively on the idea of a Jewish state. On November 29 the [[UN General Assembly]] voted in favor of ending the mandate and [[1947 UN Partition Plan|establishing two states]] on the land. That very same day the Irgun and the Lehi renewed their attacks on British targets. The next day the local Arabs began attacking the Jewish community, thus beginning the first stage of the [[1948 Palestine War]]. The first attacks on Jews were in Jewish neighborhoods of [[Jerusalem]], in and around [[Jaffa]], and in [[Bat Yam]], [[Holon]], and the [[Ha'Tikvah]] neighborhood in [[Tel Aviv]].

In the autumn of 1947, the Irgun had approximately 4,000 members. The goal of the organization at that point was the conquest of the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea for the future Jewish state and preventing Arab forces from driving out the Jewish community. The Irgun became almost an overt organization, establishing military bases in [[Ramat Gan]] and [[Petah Tikva]]. It began recruiting openly, thus significantly increasing in size. During the war the Irgun fought alongside the Lehi and the Haganah in the front against the Arab attacks. At first the Haganah maintained a defensive policy, as it had until then, but after the [[Convoy of 35]] incident it completely abandoned its policy of restraint: "Distinguishing between individuals is no longer possible, for now – it is a war, and even the innocent shall not be absolved."<ref>Netanel Lorch. ''The Edge of the Sword: Israel's War of Independence, 1947–1949'', Massada Publishing, 1958. p. 85 {{in lang|he}}</ref>

The Irgun also began carrying out reprisal missions, as it had under David Raziel's command. At the same time though, it published announcements calling on the Arabs to lay down their weapons and maintain a ceasefire:
<blockquote>
The National Military Organization has warned you, if the murderous attacks on Jewish civilians shall continue, its soldiers will penetrate your centers of activity and plague you. You have not heeded the warning. You continued to harm our brothers and murder them in wild cruelty. Therefore soldiers of the National Military Organization will go on the attack, as we have warned you.

... However even in these frenzied times, when Arab and Jewish blood is spilled at the British enslaver, we hereby call upon you ... to stop the attacks and create peace between us. We do not want a war with you. We are certain that neither do you want a war with us...<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.daat.ac.il/daat/ezrachut/begin/47_20-2.htm |title=Petition of Our Arab Neighbors: Announcement in Arabic to the Arab Rioters |language=he |publisher=Daat.ac.il |access-date=2013-08-12}}</ref>
</blockquote>

However, the mutual attacks continued. The Irgun attacked the Arab villages of [[Al-Tira (Haifa)|Tira]] near [[Haifa]], [[Yehudiya]] ('Abassiya) in the center, and [[Shuafat]] by Jerusalem. The Irgun also attacked in the [[Wadi Rushmiya]] neighborhood in Haifa and [[Abu Kabir]] in Jaffa. On December 29 Irgun units arrived by boat to the Jaffa shore and a gunfight between them and Arab gangs ensued. The following day a bomb was thrown from a speeding Irgun car at a group of Arab men waiting to be hired for the day at the Haifa oil refinery, resulting in seven Arabs killed, and dozens injured. In response, some Arab workers [[Haifa Oil Refinery massacre|attacked Jews in the area]], killing 41. This sparked a Haganah response in [[Balad al-Shaykh raid|Balad al-Sheykh]], which resulted in the deaths of 60 civilians. The Irgun's goal in the fighting was to move the battles from Jewish populated areas to Arab populated areas. On January 1, 1948, the Irgun attacked again in Jaffa, its men wearing British uniforms; later in the month it attacked in [[Beit Nabala]], a base for many Arab fighters. On 5 January 1948 the Irgun detonated a lorry bomb outside Jaffa's Ottoman built Town Hall, killing 14 and injuring 19.<ref>''[[The Scotsman]]'', 6 January 1948; Walid Khalidi states that 25 civilians were killed. 'Before their diaspora', 1984. p. 316, picture p. 325; Benny Morris, ''The Birth of the Palestinian refugee problem, 1947–1949'', Cambridge University Press, 197. {{ISBN|0-521-33028-9}}. Attributes attack to 'LHI', doesn't number dead and gives date as 4 January. p. 46</ref> In Jerusalem, two days later, Irgun members in a stolen police van rolled a barrel bomb into a large group of civilians who were waiting for a bus by the [[Jaffa Gate]], killing around sixteen.<ref>Larry Collins, Dominique Lapierre, ''O Jerusalem''. History Book Club/ Weidenfeld and Nicolson. London. 1972. pp. 135, 138: "two fifty-gallon oil drums packed tight with old nails, bits of scrap iron, hinges, rusty metal filings. At their center was a core of TNT..." 17 people were killed.</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The faithful city: the siege of Jerusalem, 1948|first=Dov|last=Joseph|author-link=Dov Yosef|publisher=Simon and Schuster|year=1960|lccn=60-10976|oclc=266413|url=https://archive.org/details/thefaithfulcity0000unse/page/56/mode/2up|url-access=registration|page=56|quote=It killed fourteen Arabs and wounded forty others.}}</ref><ref>There were 16 killed, 41 injured according to ''[[The Scotsman]]'', 8 January 1948, p. 56.</ref> In the pursuit that followed three of the attackers were killed and two taken prisoner.<ref>Collins and Lapierre name one of the survivors as Uri Cohen.</ref>

On 6 April 1948, the Irgun raided the British Army camp at [[Pardes Hanna]] killing six British soldiers and their commanding officer.<ref>''[[The Scotsman]]'', 7 April 1948. 8 April: Reports [[Yaakov Meridor]] commanded the operation. The attackers were disguised as Palestinian Police. A quantity of guns stolen.</ref>

The [[Deir Yassin massacre]] was carried out in a village west of Jerusalem that had signed a non-belligerency pact with its Jewish neighbors and the Haganah, and repeatedly had barred entry to foreign irregulars.<ref>B. Morris, 2004, ''The Birth of the Palestinian refugee problem revisited'', p. 237</ref><ref>Jon Kimche, 'Seven Fallen Pillars – The Middle East, 1915–1950'. Secker and Warburg, London. 1950. p. 217: "Dir Yassin was one of the few Arab villages whose inhabitants had refused permission for foreign Arab volunteers to use it as a base...."</ref> On 9 April approximately 120 Irgun and Lehi members began an operation to capture the village. During the operation, the villagers fiercely resisted the attack, and a battle broke out. In the end, the Irgun and Lehi forces advanced gradually through house-to-house fighting. The village was only taken after the Irgun began systematically dynamiting houses, and after a Palmach unit intervened and employed mortar fire to silence the villagers' sniper positions.<ref name=Bell/><ref name=Milstein>Milstein, Uri (1998). ''History of Israel's War of Independence: Out of Crisis Came Decision''. Volume 4, University Press of America.</ref> The operation resulted in five Jewish fighters dead and 40 injured. Some 100 to 120 villagers were also killed.<ref>B. Morris, 2004, ''The Birth of the Palestinian refugee problem revisited'', p. 238</ref>

There are allegations that Irgun and Lehi forces committed war crimes during and after the capture of the village. These allegations include reports that fleeing individuals and families were fired at, and prisoners of war were killed after their capture. A Haganah report writes:
<blockquote>The conquest of the village was carried out with great cruelty. Whole families – women, old people, children – were killed. ... Some of the prisoners moved to places of detention, including women and children, were murdered viciously by their captors.''<ref>quoted by B. Morris, 2004, ''The Birth of the Palestinian refugee problem revisited'', p. 237</ref></blockquote>

Some say that this incident was an event that accelerated the Arab exodus from Palestine.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/events/israel_at_50/profiles/81305.stm | work=BBC News | title=Menachem Begin | date=April 21, 1998 | access-date=May 5, 2010}}</ref>

The Irgun cooperated with the Haganah in the conquest of Haifa. At the regional commander's request, on April 21 the Irgun took over an Arab post above Hadar Ha'Carmel as well as the Arab neighborhood of Wadi Nisnas, adjacent to the Lower City.

The Irgun acted independently in the conquest of Jaffa (part of the proposed Arab State according to the [[UN Partition Plan]]). On April 25 Irgun units, about 600 strong, left the Irgun base in [[Ramat Gan]] towards Arab Jaffa. Difficult battles ensued, and the Irgun faced resistance from the Arabs as well as the British.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.etzel.org.il/english/ac18.htm |title=The Conquest Of Jaffa |publisher=Etzel.org.il |access-date=2013-08-12 |archive-date=2021-11-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211111055047/https://etzel.org.il/english/ac18.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> Under the command of [[Amichai Paglin|Amichai "Gidi" Paglin]], the Irgun's chief operations officer, the Irgun captured the neighborhood of Manshiya, which threatened the city of [[Tel Aviv]]. Afterwards the force continued to the sea, towards the area of the port, and using mortars, shelled the southern neighborhoods.
[[File:Manshiyeh.jpg|thumb|left|The Manshiya quarter between [[Jaffa]] and Tel Aviv after the Irgun mortar bombardment.]] In his report concerning the fall of Jaffa the local Arab military commander, Michel Issa, wrote: "Continuous shelling with mortars of the city by Jews for four days, beginning 25 April, [...] caused inhabitants of city, unaccustomed to such bombardment, to panic and flee."<ref>W. Khalidi, 1998, "Selected Documents on the 1948 Palestine War", ''J. Palestine Studies'' 27(3), pp. 60–105</ref> According to Morris the shelling was done by the Irgun. Their objective was "to prevent constant military traffic in the city, to break the spirit of the enemy troops [and] to cause chaos among the civilian population in order to create a mass flight."<ref name="autogenerated1">Morris, 2004, 'The Birth ... Revisited', p. 213</ref> High Commissioner Cunningham wrote a few days later "It should be made clear that IZL attack with mortars was indiscriminate and designed to create panic among the civilian inhabitants."<ref name="autogenerated1" /> The British demanded the evacuation of the newly conquered city, and militarily intervened, ending the Irgun offensive. Heavy British shelling against Irgun positions in Jaffa failed to dislodge them, and when British armor pushed into the city, the Irgun resisted; a bazooka team managed to knock out one tank, buildings were blown up and collapsed onto the streets as the armor advanced, and Irgun men crawled up and tossed live dynamite sticks onto the tanks. The British withdrew, and opened negotiations with the Jewish authorities.<ref name=Bell/> An agreement was worked out, under which Operation Hametz would be stopped and the Haganah would not attack Jaffa until the end of the Mandate. The Irgun would evacuate Manshiya, with Haganah fighters replacing them. British troops would patrol its southern end and occupy the police fort. The Irgun had previously agreed with the Haganah that British pressure would not lead to withdrawal from Jaffa and that custody of captured areas would be turned over to the Haganah. The city ultimately fell on May 13 after Haganah forces entered the city and took control of the rest of the city, from the south – part of the ''Hametz Operation'' which included the conquest of a number of villages in the area. The battles in Jaffa were a great victory for the Irgun. This operation was the largest in the history of the organization, which took place in a highly built up area that had many militants in shooting positions. During the battles explosives were used in order to break into homes and continue forging a way through them. Furthermore, this was the first occasion in which the Irgun had directly fought British forces, reinforced with armor and heavy weaponry. The city began these battles with an Arab population estimated at 70,000, which shrank to some 4,100 Arab residents by the end of major hostilities. Since the Irgun captured the neighborhood of Manshiya on its own, causing the flight of many of Jaffa's residents, the Irgun took credit for the conquest of Jaffa. It had lost 42 dead and about 400 wounded during the battle.<ref name=Bell/>