Operation Nachshon

Operation Nachshon (Hebrew: מבצע נחשון‎‎, Mivtza Nahshon) was a Jewish military operation during the 1948 war. Lasting from 5–20 April 1948, its objective was to break the Siege of Jerusalem by opening the Tel-Aviv - Jerusalem road blockaded by Palestinian Arabs and to supply food and weapons to the isolated Jewish community of Jerusalem.

Nachshon was the first major Haganah operation and the first step of Plan Dalet, The plan was a set of guidelines for taking control of the territory allotted to Palestinian Jews by the 1947 UN Partition Plan, and defending its borders and people, including the Palestinian Jewish population outside of the borders, 'before, and in anticipation of' the invasion by regular Arab armies. According to the Israeli Yehoshafat Harkabi, "Plan Dalet" called for the conquest of Arab towns and villages inside and along the borders of the area allocated to the proposed Jewish State pursuant to the UN Partition Plan. In case of resistance, the Arabs of conquered villages were to be expelled outside the borders of the Jewish state. If no resistance was met, the Arab residents could stay put, under military rule. Operation Nachshon was carried out by the Haganah's Givati and the Harel Brigade of the Palmach.

By the end of March 1948, Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni's troops were preventing supply convoys from reaching Jerusalem. The city was besieged and the Jewish population was forced to adhere to a rationing system. On 31 March a 60 vehicle Jewish convoy was ambushed at Hulda and forced to turn back with the loss of five vehicles and 17 dead. Yishuv leader David Ben-Gurion decided to launch Nachshon in order to open up the city and provide supplies to the Jewish residents. Although initially intended as a one-shot affair, Nachshon later proved to be the first operation in the implementation of Plan Dalet.

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