page_title: History of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
section_title: 1947–1948 war: Yishuv versus Palestinian Arabs and volunteers
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict / Background / Intercommunal violence in Mandatory Palestine / 1947–1948 war: Yishuv versus Palestinian Arabs and volunteers
caption_attribution_description: English: Tel Aviv residents taking cover from Arab snipers fire from Hassan Bek Mosque, 1948.
context_page_description: The history of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict began with the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948.
  This conflict came from the intercommunal violence in Mandatory Palestine between Israelis and Arabs from 1920 and erupted into full-scale hostilities in the 1947–48 civil war. The conflict continues to the present day on various levels.
context_section_description: The approval of the plan sparked attacks carried out by Arab irregulars against the Jewish population in Palestine. Fighting began almost as soon as the Resolution of November 29, 1947 was approved. Shooting, stoning, and rioting continued apace in the following days. The consulates of Poland and Sweden, both of whose governments had voted for partition, were attacked. Bombs were thrown into cafes, Molotov cocktails were hurled at shops, and a synagogue was set on fire. Arab gunmen attacked Jewish cars and trucks, snipers in Jaffa began firing at passers-by in Tel Aviv and Jaffa Arabs attacked close Tel Aviv neighborhood.
  As the British evacuation from the region progressed, the violence became more prevalent. Murders, reprisals, and counter-reprisals came fast on each other's heels, resulting in dozens of victims killed on both sides in the process. The Deir Yassin massacre took place on April 9, 1948, when around 120 fighters from the Irgun Zevai Leumi and the Israeli Stern Gang Zionist paramilitary groups attacked Deir Yassin near Jerusalem, a Palestinian Arab village of roughly 600 people. The sanguinary impasse persisted as no force intervened to put a stop to the escalating cycles of violence. During the first two months of the war, about 1,000 people were killed and 2,000 injured. By the end of March, the figure had risen to 2,000 dead and 4,000 wounded.
  On May 14, 1948, one day before the British Mandate expired, Ben-Gurion declared "the establishment of a Jewish State in Eretz-Israel, to be known as the State of Israel". The declaration was stated to be "by virtue of our natural and historic right and on the strength of the resolution of the United Nations General Assembly". The Declaration stated that the State of Israel would "ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations".
caption: Tel Aviv civilians trying to hide from Arab snipers shooting at the Carmel market from Hassan Beck mosque on, 25 February 1948
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