ABSTRACT
Although some historians would cite 14 May 1948 as the start of the war known variously as the Israeli War of Independence, an-Nakba (the (Palestinian) Catastrophe), or the first Palestine war, it would be more accurate to consider that war as beginning on 30 November 1947, with the Arab attacks which followed the passage of the historic United Nations partition resolution of 29 November. The initial pattern of the fighting was a civil war, which was followed, after 15 May 1948, by the entry into Palestine of armies from the neighbour-ing states. The ensuing inter-state war was punctuated by truces and Israeli counter-offensives spread over the next ten months, as follows:
Arab armies advance, 15 May-11 June 1948
First truce, 11 June-9 July
'Ten Days' War', 9-18 July
Second Truce, 18July- 15 October
Operation Yoav (Egyptian Negev front), 15-22 October
Operation Hiram (Galilee), 29-31 October
Operation Horev (Negev IEgypt), 22 December 1948-7 January 1949
Operation Uvda (Negev/Transjordan), 5-10 March 1949. 1
