page_title: Southern Palestine Offensive
section_title: Surrender
hierarchical_section_title: Southern Palestine Offensive / Jerusalem 2–9 December / Surrender
caption_attribution_description: العربية: رئيس بلدية القدس حُسين أفندي الحُسيني (بِالزي العُثماني ممسكا بعصاه وسيجارة) بصحبة مجموعة من المستقبلين حاملين علمًا أبيض يهمون تسليم رسالة استسلام من قبل عـزت بك متصرف القدس العثماني قرب الحدود الغربية للمدينة صباح يوم 9 كانون الأوَّل (ديسمبر) 1917م إلى الرقيبين جيمس سيدجويك وفـريديريك هيوركومب من الكتيبة التاسعة عشرة البريطانية (وهما الرابع والسابع من جهة اليسار في الصورة). غير أن ما حدث كان مفاجئة بالنسبة للجندين البريطانيين حيث أنهما كانا في مهمة استطلاعية قبل وصول قوات الجنرال السير أدموند اللنبي، كما رفض من تلاهم من قوات تسلم تلك الوثيقة. وكان بصحبة رئيس البلدية عدد من المسؤولين ومنهم ابن أخيه توفيق صالح الحُسيني ومفتشا الشرطة عبد القادر العلمي، وأحمد شرف (الثاني في الصورة من جهة اليمين) والشُرطيان حُسين العسلي وإبراهيم الزعنون وفريق من الشُبَّان منهم رُشدي مُحمَّد المُهتدي وجواد إسماعيل الحُسيني وحنَّا إسكندر اللحَّام. وكان هذا الأخير حاملًا العلم الأبيض علامة التسليم. هذا بالإضافة إلى مُصوِّر شاب اسمه لويس لارسن، الذي عُيِّن فيما بعد قُنصلًا لِلسُويد في القُدس، وكانت مُهمَّته تسجيل تلك المُناسبة بِالصُور. وقد بدى للوفد المقدسي وقتها أنه لا يوجد من يريد أن يقبل استسلامهم، وذلك إلى أن وصل أمير اللواء سي إف واطسون قائد اللواء المائة والثمانون إلى المدينة، فقبل الوثيقة وقام لارسون بأخذ صُورًا للمناسبة English: The Mayor of Jerusalem, Hussein Salim Al-Husseini (with walking stick and cigarette), with his party under a white flag-of-truce, attempts to deliver the surrender document signed by the Ottoman Governor Izzat Pasha just outside Jerusalem’s western limits on the morning of 9 December 1917 to Sergeants James Sedgewick and Frederick Hurcomb of 2/19th Battalion of the London Regiment (fourth and seventh from left in the picture). The surprised sergeants, who were scouting ahead of General Sir Edmund Allenby's main force, refused to take the letter, as did several more arriving troops. The Mayor was accompanied by a number of officials including his nephew Toufiq Saleh Al-Husseini, police inspectors Abdelqadir Al-Alami and Ahmad Sharaf (Second from right in the picture), policemen Hussein Al-Assaly and Ibrahim Al-Zaanoun, as well as a group of young men among whom were Rushdi Mohamed Al-Muhtada, Jawad Ismail Al-Husseini, and Hanna Iskandar Al-Lahham, who carried the white flag. The Mayor was also accompanied by a young photographer named Lewis Larsson, who later became Swedish Consul in Palestine, and whose role was to record the ceremony. It began to look to the Jerusalemites as if nobody would let them surrender, until Brigadier-General C.F. Watson, commanding 180th Infantry Brigade entered the town, accepted the documents, and Larsson could photograph the event properly.
context_page_description: The Southern Palestine Offensive, employing manoeuvre warfare, began on 31 October 1917, with the Battle of Beersheba, during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign, of World War I. After the capture of Beersheba, by the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, the Gaza to Beersheba line became increasingly weakened and, seven days later, the EEF successfully forced the Ottoman Turkish Empire's Seventh and Eighth Armies to withdraw. During the following seven days of pursuit, the Turkish forces were pushed back to Jaffa. There followed three weeks of hard fighting in the Judean Hills before Jerusalem was captured on 9 December 1917. During five and a half weeks of almost continuous offensive operations, the EEF captured 47.5 miles of territory.
  After a joint attack by the XX and the Desert Mounted Corps, Beersheba at the eastern end of the Gaza to Beersheba line, was captured. The next day, on 1 November, the Battle of Tel el Khuweilfe began, with an advance north of Beersheba into the Judean foothills, by the 53rd and the ANZAC Mounted Divisions. This move up the road from Beersheba to Jerusalem, also threatened Hebron and Bethlehem.
context_section_description: During almost continuous rain on 8 December, Jerusalem ceased to be protected by the Ottoman Empire. At the same time Chetwode launched the final advance taking the heights to the west of the city. The Ottoman Seventh Army retreated during the evening and the city surrendered the following day. Jerusalem was almost encircled by the EEF, although Ottoman Army units briefly held the Mount of Olives on 9 December. They were attacked by units of the 60th (London) Division which captured the position the following afternoon.
caption: The surrender of Jerusalem to the British, 9 December 1917
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