Battle of Ammunition Hill Ammunition Hill ( , " Giv ' at HaTahmoshet " ) was a fortified Jordanian military post in the northern part of Jordanian - occupied East Jerusalem . It was the site of one of the fiercest battles of the Six - Day War . Ammunition Hill is now a national memorial site . Historical background . Ammunition Hill was located west of a police academy , with a fortified trench connecting them . The site was built by the British during their Mandatory government of Palestine in the 1930s , and was used to store the police academy ' s ammunition . The Jordanian Arab Legion seized control of the Hill during the 1948 Arab - Israeli War , severing the link between Mount Scopus and West Jerusalem . In the wake of the 1949 Armistice Agreements , parts of Mount Scopus remained an Israeli enclave in Jordanian - held territory , with the Jordanians blocking access to Hadassah Hospital and the campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on the hilltop . The post consisted of tens of bunker s built along the three main trench systems surrounding the hill , with fortified gun emplacements covering each trench . The living quarters for the Jordanian defenders of the hill were in a large underground bunker . At the time of the Six - Day War , the post was defended by a reinforced Jordanian company of 150 soldiers , of the El - Hussein regiment ( number 2 ) . The battle . A decision was taken by the Israeli Jerusalem Command , under General Uzi Narkis , to forego an aerial attack on the hill due to its proximity to civilian areas . Instead an artillery barrage was to be focused on the police post , followed by a ground attack using an enlarged Paratroop company . The size of the Israeli assault force was based on incorrect intelligence , which detailed the hill as being defended by a single platoon . When the ground assault began , the police academy was discovered to be empty of Jordanian troops , as they had taken shelter from the barrage in the bunker system of the hill , thereby enlarging the force defending the hill to one equal in size to the assault force rather than 1 / 3 of its size , as had been anticipated by Israeli Central Command . The fighting at the police academy and Ammunition Hill began on June 6 , 1967 , at 2 : 30 AM . The task of capturing the hill was given to the Israeli 3rd company of the 66th Battalion , of the Paratroopers Brigade ' s reserve force ( 55th Brigade ) , and during the battle , a force of the 2nd company joined the fighting . The battle ended at 6 : 30 AM , although Israeli troops remained in the trenches due to sniper fire from Givat HaMivtar , until the Harel Brigade overran that outpost in the afternoon . Thirty - six Israeli soldiers and 71 Jordanians were killed in the fighting . Ten of the soldiers who fought in this battle were given citations by the Israeli chief of general staff . The commander of the Paratroopers Brigade was Mordechai Gur . The commander of the 66th Battalion was Yossi Yafe . Memorial site . In 1975 , a memorial site and museum were inaugurated on the Hill , preserving a part of the old post and opening a museum in the bunker . In addition , 182 olive trees were planted on the Hill , commemorating the 182 Israeli soldiers who fell during the Six - Day War . In 1987 , the site was declared a national memorial site . The main ceremony on Yom Yerushalayim ( Jerusalem Day ) is held here . An estimated 200 , 000 visitors tour the site each year , including 80 , 000 soldiers . Ammunition Hill is also the main induction center for IDF paratroopers .