page_title: Battle of Nitzanim
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Nitzanim / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: Givati troops in Nitzanim during the 1948 Arab-Israel War
context_page_description: The Battle of Nitzanim was a battle fought between the Israel Defense Forces and the Egyptian Army in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, on June 7, 1948. It was the first major Egyptian victory of the war, and one of the few cases of Israeli surrender.
  The battle began on the night of June 6–7 with an artillery bombardment of Nitzanim, followed by an aerial bombardment and armored and infantry attacks. The main attack broke through the Israeli defenses at around 11:00; the Israelis retreated to a second position, and finally to a third position at 14:00. At 16:00, 105 Israelis surrendered to the Egyptian Army. Between June 7 and 10, the Battle of Hill 69 was fought nearby. The hill was captured by the Egyptians after a disorganized Israeli retreat.
  Israelis viewed the surrender of Nitzanim as a humiliation, especially after the Givati Brigade published a leaflet denouncing the defenders. The residents of Nitzanim demanded a probe into the battle, and one was conducted by the General Staff, siding with the residents and coming to the conclusion that surrender was justified.
context_section_description: Kibbutz Nitzanim, founded in 1943, was an isolated Israeli village on the coastal plain, enclosed by the Arab localities of Isdud in the north, Majdal in the south, and Julis and Beit Daras in the east. It was drawn inside the Arab state in the defunct United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine. As such, Nitzanim was isolated after December 31, 1947. It was attacked many times in the first six months of the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine by local irregulars. The Jewish defenders used old Italian World War I rifles and managed to repel the attacks. In March 1948, Haganah forces from the headquarters in Be'er Tuvia broke through to the village, but on the way back were ambushed and the Haganah commander of Nitzanim, Shlomo Rubinstein, was killed in action. On March 26 and April 20, organized Arab attacks took place, and were repelled by the villagers. The Niztanim collective was located 700 meters west of the coastal road. Its expanse, 800m long and 400m wide, did not allow for the formation of a second line of defense. The farmstead buildings were mostly built in a ravine surrounded by hills from all sides. To the north lied the "graveyard ridge", a convenient location for observations. Near it lay a wadi crater stretching west and allowing a convenient advance toward the farmstead from the north. To the east, the farmstead bordered a destroyed British camp, which allowed for an enemy advance right up to the farmstead fence. About two kilometers to the northeast was Hill 69, a position commanding the entire surrounding area.
  At noon on May 29, an observation post near Nitzanim reported that an Egyptian column of about 150 vehicles had passed along the coastal road to the north. The post later reported that 500 vehicles, an entire brigade, had been counted. The observers were not trained in identifying military vehicles, and excitedly miscounted the vehicles passing. They exaggerated the numbers when they reported to the Givati Brigade. The Egyptian Army set up a position in Isdud between May 29 and June 1, for what Israelis presumed at the time to be thrust to capture Tel Aviv. However, the Egyptian advance stopped at the Ad Halom Bridge (over the Lakhish River to the north of Isdud), which had been destroyed by the Givati Brigade on May 12. As they made logistical preparations to cross the river, the column was bombed and engaged in Operation Pleshet (June 2–3). The Egyptians therefore shifted their focus to clearing their flanks, focusing on Nitzanim as some of the injured Israelis who participated in Pleshet were evacuated there. While the nearby village of Beit Daras had been under Israeli control since May 11, there was no continuity with Nitzanim, as Hill 69, which separated the two villages, was not occupied. The Givati Brigade planned to capture the hill on the night of June 7–8, but did not anticipate the Egyptian attack on Nitzanim. The plan to capture the hill, however, was carried out on time.
caption: Givati troops in Nitzanim
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS4 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2009:06:03 01:59:40", "Image ExifOffset": "164", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "302", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "7960", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "282", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "422"}