Battles of the Sinai (1948)

The Battles of the Sinai refer to a series of military engagements between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Egyptian Army fought in the Sinai Peninsula in December 1948 – January 1949, as part of the Israeli Operation Horev. The IDF's Southern Command, under Yigal Allon, concentrated forces to push into the Sinai following their success in the Battle of Bir 'Asluj and the Battle of 'Auja.

Forces from the Negev and 8th brigades entered the Sinai on December 28 and at night captured Umm Katef and Abu Ageila, about 25km inside Egyptian territory. They continued north to al-Arish, which Allon planned to capture, in order to encircle the Egyptian expeditionary force in Palestine and end the war. However, due to political and diplomatic considerations, all Israeli forces retreated from the Sinai on January 2, 1949. Another attempt to encircle the Egyptian forces was made on the next day in the Battle of Rafah, but Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion ordered the IDF to turn back, ending military engagements in the war.

The third and final stage of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War started on October 15, 1948, when Israel launched Operation Yoav on the southern front. While the Israelis made significant tactical and strategic gains in Operation Yoav, the political situation changed little and Egypt was still dragging its feet on proposed armistice talks.Operation Horev was therefore launched in the south with the final aim of expelling all Egyptian forces from Israel.

The main thrust of Operation Horev was in the south, and on December 25–27, Israeli forces captured the Beersheba–'Auja road, including Bir 'Asluj. The Southern Command decided to exploit this success in order to complete the rest of Operation Horev, namely, to surround and eventually expel all Egyptian forces from Palestine. The order was given to move into the Sinai Peninsula on the morning of December 28. This order directly contradicted the General Staff plan, which forbade entering Egyptian territory. According to Yitzhak Rabin, then the operations officer of the Southern Command, the command attempted to create facts on the ground before getting the necessary approval for the action.

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