Editing 1948 Arab–Israeli War (section)

===Second phase: 8–18 July 1948 ("Ten Day Battles")===
On 8 July, the day before the expiration of the truce, Egyptian forces under General [[Muhammad Naguib]] renewed the war by [[Battles of Negba#Battle of July 12|attacking Negba]].<ref>Alfred A. Knopf. ''A History of Israel from the Rise of Zionism to Our Time''. New York. 1976. p. 330. {{ISBN|978-0-394-48564-5}}.</ref> The following day, Israeli air forces launched a simultaneous offensive on all three fronts, ranging from [[Quneitra]] to [[Arish]] and the Egyptian air force bombed the city of Tel Aviv.<ref>Gelber, 2006{{page needed|date=May 2021}}; Kinneret, p. 226</ref> During the fighting, the Israelis were able to open a lifeline to a number of besieged kibbutzim.<ref name="Karsh2002p64"/>

The fighting continued for ten days until the UN Security Council issued the Second Truce on 18 July. During those 10 days, the fighting was dominated by large-scale Israeli offensives and a defensive posture from the Arab side.{{Citation needed|date=May 2021}}

====Southern front====
{{Further|Operation An-Far|Operation Death to the Invader}}
[[File:6pdr-Aibdis.jpg|thumb|An Egyptian artillery piece captured by battalion 53 of the [[Givati Brigade]].]]
In the south, the IDF carried out several offensives, including [[Operation An-Far]] and [[Operation Death to the Invader]]. The task of the 11th Brigades's 1st Battalion on the southern flank was to capture villages, and its operation ran smoothly, with but little resistance from local irregulars. According to Amnon Neumann, a [[Palmach]] veteran of the Southern front, hardly any Arab villages in the south fought back, due to the miserable poverty of their means and lack of weapons, and suffered expulsion.<ref>[[Gideon Levy]] and Alex Levac, [http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/twilight-zone/1.550550 'Drafting the blueprint for Palestinian refugees' right of return,'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016054552/http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/twilight-zone/1.550550 |date=16 October 2015 }} at [[Haaretz]] 4 October 2013: 'In all the Arab villages in the south almost nobody fought. The villagers were so poor, so miserable, that they didn't even have weapons ... The flight of these residents began when we started to clean up the routes used by those accompanying the convoys. Then we began to expel them, and in the end they fled on their own.'</ref> What slight resistance was offered was quelled by an artillery barrage, followed by the storming of the village, whose residents were expelled and houses destroyed.<ref>David Tal, ''War in Palestine, 1948: Israeli and Arab Strategy and Diplomacy,'' Routledge 2004 p. 307.</ref>
{{Further|Battles of Negba}}
On 12 July, the Egyptians launched an offensive action, and again attacked [[Negba]], which they had previously failed to capture, using three infantry battalions, an armoured battalion, and an artillery regiment. In the battle that followed, the Egyptians were repulsed, suffering 200–300 casualties, while the Israelis lost 5 dead and 16 wounded.<ref>Herzog and Gazit, 2005, p. 86</ref>

After failing to take Negba, the Egyptians turned their attention to more isolated settlements and positions. On 14 July, an Egyptian attack on [[Gal On]] was driven off by a minefield and by resistance from Gal On's residents.<ref>Lorch, Netanel (1998). ''History of the War of Independence''</ref>{{page needed|date=May 2021}}
{{Further|Battle of Be'erot Yitzhak}}
The Egyptians then assaulted the lightly defended village of [[Be'erot Yitzhak]]. The Egyptians managed to penetrate the village perimeter, but the defenders concentrated in an inner position in the village and fought off the Egyptian advance until IDF reinforcements arrived and drove out the attackers. The Egyptians suffered an estimated 200 casualties, while the Israelis had 17 dead and 15 wounded. The battle was one of Egypt's last offensive actions during the war, and the Egyptians did not attack any Israeli villages following this battle.{{Citation needed|date=May 2021}}

====Operation Dani====

Israeli [[Operation Dani]] was the most important Israeli offensive, aimed at securing and enlarging the corridor between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv by capturing the roadside cities [[Lod]] (Lydda) and [[Ramle]]. In a second planned stage of the operation the fortified positions of [[Latrun]] – overlooking the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway – and the city of [[Ramallah]] were also to be captured. [[Al-Haditha, Ramle|Hadita]], near Latrun, was captured by the Israelis at a cost of nine dead.{{citation needed|date=May 2021}}

The objectives of Operation Dani were to capture territory east of Tel Aviv and then to push inland and relieve the Jewish population and forces in [[Jerusalem]]. Lydda had become an important military center in the region, lending support to Arab military activities elsewhere, and Ramle was one of the main obstacles blocking Jewish transportation. Lydda was defended by a local militia of around 1,000 residents, with an [[Arab Legion]] contingent of 125–300.<ref>Kadish, Alon, and Sela, Avraham. (2005) "Myths and historiography of the 1948 Palestine War revisited: the case of Lydda," ''The Middle East Journal'', 22 September 2005; and Khalidi, Walid. (1998) Introduction to Munayyer, Spiro. [https://web.archive.org/web/20110718144237/http://www.palestine-studies.org/enakba/Memoirs/Munayyer,%20The%20Fall%20of%20Lydda.pdf The fall of Lydda]. ''[[Journal of Palestine Studies]]'', Vol. 27, No. 4, pp. 80–98.</ref>

On 10 July, [[Glubb Pasha]] ordered the defending [[Arab Legion]] troops to "make arrangements...for a phony war".<ref>{{cite book|author=Benny Morris|title=1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CC7381HrLqcC&pg=PA287+|year=2008|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-14524-3|page=287}}</ref>{{clarification needed|date=October 2024}}

=====Lydda and al-Ramla=====
{{Further|Palestinian expulsion from Lydda and Ramle}}

The IDF forces gathered to attack the city numbered around 8,000. It was the first operation where several brigades were involved. The city was attacked from the north via [[Majdal al-Sadiq]] and [[al-Muzayri'a]], and from the east via [[Khulda]], [[al-Qubab]], [[Jimzu]] and [[Daniyal]]. Bombers were also used for the first time in the conflict to bombard the city. The IDF captured the city on 11 July.<ref name="Karsh2002p64" />

[[File:1948 Arab-Israeli War (997008136589405171) (cropped).jpg|thumb|An Israeli soldier with detained Palestinians in Ramle, July 1948]]

The civilian [[Palestinian expulsion from Lydda and Ramle|populations of Lydda and Ramle (50,000-70,000 people) were violently expelled]].{{refn|Slater, Jerome, ''Mythologies Without End: The US, Israel, and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1917-2020'' (New York, 2020; online edn, Oxford Academic, 19 Nov. 2020), https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190459086.003.0001. "During the 1948 war Rabin was a leading Haganah general and commander of a force that violently expelled 50,000 inhabitants of the Palestinian towns of Lydda and Ramle."}}{{refn|Pappé 2006, "[...] expelled the populations of the two towns of Lydd and Ramla, altogether 70,000 people"}} Hundreds of Palestinians were killed in multiple mass killing events in Lydda, and many were expelled without the provision of transport vehicles, as had been done in Ramle; many of the evictees died on the long walk under the hot July sun.<ref>{{cite book|author=Benny Morris|title=The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947–1949|url=https://archive.org/details/birthofpalestini00morr|url-access=registration|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1987|pages=[https://archive.org/details/birthofpalestini00morr/page/203 203–11]|isbn=978-0-521-33889-9}}</ref>

=====Battle of Latrun=====
{{Further|Battles of Latrun (1948)}}

On 15–16 July, an attack on Latrun took place but did not manage to occupy the fort.<ref name="Karsh2002p64" /> A desperate second attempt occurred on 18 July by units from the [[Yiftach Brigade]] equipped with armoured vehicles, including two [[Cromwell tank]]s, but that attack also failed. Despite the second truce, which began on 18 July, the Israeli efforts to conquer Latrun continued until 20 July.{{Citation needed|date=May 2021}}

====Jerusalem====
{{Further|Operation Kedem}}
[[File:PikiWiki Israel 2184 1948 war מלחמת העצמאות.jpg|thumb|right|[[Etzioni Brigade|Beit Horon Battalion]] soldiers in the [[Russian Compound]] in Jerusalem, 1948]]
[[Operation Kedem]]'s aim was to secure the Old City of Jerusalem, but fewer resources were allocated. The operation failed.<ref>[http://www.allthatremains.com/Maps/IsraeliMiliteryDuringTheTruce07-08-48-To-07-18-48.jpg Map of the Attacks] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050414014404/http://www.allthatremains.com/Maps/IsraeliMiliteryDuringTheTruce07-08-48-To-07-18-48.jpg |date=14 April 2005 }}.</ref> Originally the operation was to begin on 8 July, immediately after the first truce, by [[Irgun]] and [[Lehi (group)|Lehi]] forces. However, it was delayed by [[David Shaltiel]], possibly because he did not trust their ability after their failure to capture [[Deir Yassin]] without Haganah assistance.{{Citation needed|date=May 2021}}

Irgun forces commanded by [[Yehuda Lapidot]] were to break through at the [[New Gate]], Lehi was to break through the wall stretching from the New Gate to the [[Jaffa Gate]], and the [[Etzioni Brigade|Beit Horon Battalion]] was to strike from [[Mount Zion]].{{citation needed|date=May 2021}}

The battle was planned to begin on the [[Shabbat]], at 20:00 on 16 July, two days before the second ceasefire of the war. The plan went wrong from the beginning and was postponed first to 23:00 and then to midnight. It was not until 02:30 that the battle actually began. The Irgun managed to break through at the New Gate, but the other forces failed in their missions. At 05:45 on 17 July, Shaltiel ordered a retreat and to cease hostilities.{{Citation needed|date=May 2021}}

On 14 July 1948, Irgun occupied the Arab village of [[Malha]] after a fierce battle. Several hours later, the Arabs launched a counterattack, but Israeli reinforcements arrived, and the village was retaken at a cost of 17 dead.{{Citation needed|date=May 2021}}

====Southern Galilee====
{{Further|Operation Dekel}}
The second plan was [[Operation Dekel]], which was aimed at capturing the [[Lower Galilee]] including [[Nazareth]]. Nazareth was captured on 16 July, and by the time the second truce took effect at 19:00 18 July, the whole Lower Galilee from Haifa Bay to the [[Sea of Galilee]] was captured by Israel.{{Citation needed|date=May 2021}}

====Eastern Galilee====
Operation Brosh was launched in a failed attempt to dislodge Syrian forces from the Eastern Galilee and the Benot Yaakov Bridge. During the operation, 200 Syrians and 100 Israelis were killed.{{citation needed|date=May 2021}}