Battle of Mishmar HaEmek

The battle of Mishmar HaEmek was a ten-day battle fought from 4 to 15 April 1948 between the Arab Liberation Army (Yarmouk Battalion) commanded by Fawzi al-Qawuqji and the Haganah (Palmach and HISH) commanded by Yitzhak Sadeh. The battle begun when al-Qawuqji launched an attack against Mishmar HaEmek with the intent of taking the kibbutz, which was strategically placed beside the main road between Jenin and Haifa. In 1947 it had a population of 550.

On 4 April 1948, about 1,000 Arab Liberation Army (ALA) militiamen launched an attack on the kibbutz. They were initially opposed by 170 Jews and later, two companies of the Palmach, "less than 300 boys." The attack began with an artillery barrage from seven artillery pieces supplied by the Syrian Army. This was the first time that artillery was used in the war. For five days, the Arab force shelled the village from a distance of 800 yards. The Jews had one machine gun and "not enough rifles for all the male settlers," Following the shelling, an infantry attack was launched, but it was "stopped in its tracks along the fence of the village by defenders' fire." That night a company from the Haganah's Golani Brigade "infiltrated into the village" to assist the Haganah militia who had repelled the attack. Mishmar HaEmek was shelled again all day on 5 April and Jewish reinforcements arrived during the following night. At the same time the 1st battalion of the Palmach began assembling at Ein Hashofet 3 miles (4.8 km) to the west. Kaukji also brought reinforcements from Jenin.

On 7 April, a British unit suggested a ceasefire and the ALA "agreed to cease the attack" for 24 hours and "called on the kibbutz to surrender its weapons and submit to Arab rule". During this 24-hour period, the kibbutz was able to evacuate its women and children. The ceasefire was rejected by David Ben-Gurion and the Haganah General Staff, who decided instead to launch a counter-attack "to clear the ALA and the local Arab inhabitants out of the area, and to level the villages in order to permanently remove the threat to Mishmar Ha'emek," and to make it more difficult for an invading force from Jenin to push through to Haifa. "It began as a desperate Jewish defence and turned into a Haganah offensive conforming to Plan Dalet guidelines."

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