In an action that began on 24 January 1918, Arab forces successfully repelled a Turkish attempt to recapture Tafila. In the aftermath of the battle, Ottoman soldiers retreated back to the Wadi al-Hasa (the Ghor as-Safi lies at the western end of this wadi), where they became trapped and were annihilated. By May 1918 another report in the Arab Bulletin states that Abdullah Ibn Hamza was back at Ghor el-Safieh with a small force and was experiencing difficulties obtaining supplies. The war diary of the fifth Company of the Imperial Camel Corps details a visit to the Ghor as-Safi on 31 May 1918, where they camped for the night during a patrol to the Dead Sea before leaving early on the morning of 1 June. The patrol report describes the landscape at the Ghor as-Safi, including its fertility and abundant water supply, before noting that the main crop being cultivated by locals at the time was wheat.