January: British sells 20 Auster planes to Jewish authorities in
Palestine.
Palestinian guerrilla leader ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Husseini secretly returns to
Palestine after ten-year exile to organize resistance to partition.
January 8: First contingent of 330 ALA volunteers arrives in
Palestine.
January 14: Haganah concludes $12,280,000 arms deal with
Czechoslovakia, including 24,500
rifles,5,200machinegunsand54millionroundsofammunition.
January 16: British report to UN estimates 1,974 people killed or
injured in Palestine from 30 November 1947 - 10 January 1948.
January 20: British administration announces that predominantly
Jewish or Palestinian areas will be gradually handed over to local majority
group in every area concerned.
January 21 & 28: Second and third contingents of 360 and 400 ALA
irregulars arrive in Palestine. January - March: JNF leaders
encourage eviction from villages of Haifa area.
February: Haganah office setup in US under name “Land and Labor” for
recruitment of professional military personnel (MAHAL).
February 14: Ben-Gurion issues orders to Haganah commander in
Jerusalem for conquest of whole city and its suburbs.
February 18: Haganah calls up men and women aged 25 - 35 for military
service.
February 20: Ship Independence arrives at Tel Aviv with 280
volunteers under oath to Haganah on board, implementing policy of illegal
immigration of military personnel.
February 24: US delegate to UN says role of Security Council
regarding Palestine to keep peace, not enforce partition. Syrian delegate
proposes appointment of Committee to explore possibility of Jewish Agency -
Arab Higher Committee agreement.
February 27: Jewish Agency announces it will establish state even
without backing of an international force.
March: Haganah creates Commission for Arab Property in the villages.
Transjordanian prime minister Tawfiq Abual-Huda secretly meets British
foreign secretary Bevin. They agree that Transjordanian forces will enter
Palestine at end of Mandate but will restrict themselves to area of Arab
state outlined in Partition Plan.
March 2: US delegate tells Security Council US favors implementing
partition by “peaceful measures” only.
March 5 - 7: Qawuqji enters Palestine and assumes command of ALA
units in central Palestine. March 6: Haganah declares general mobilization.
March 10: British House of Commons votes to terminate Mandate on May
15th.
March 19 - 20: US delegate asks UN Security Council to suspend action
on partition plan and to convene General Assembly special session to work on
a trusteeship and truce if Jews also accept. Jewish Agency rejects
trusteeship.
March 19: Ben-Gurion declares Jewish state dependent not on UN
partition decision but on Jewish military preponderance.
March 25: President Truman secretly receives Chaim Weizmann at White
House and pledges support for declaration of Jewish state on May 15th.
March 30 - May 15: Second coastal “clearing” operation carried out by
Haganah Alexandroni brigade and other units.
Attacks and expulsions drive out almost all Palestinian communities from
coastal area from Haifa to Jaffa prior to British withdrawal.
April 1: Ship Nora delivers first consignment of Czecharms in Haifa.
UN Security Council resolutions call for a special session of General
Assembly and agree to US proposal for truce to be arranged through Jewish
Agency and Arab Higher Committee.
April 2: Haganah captures Palestinian village of Castel, west of
Jerusalem, expelling its inhabitants. April 5: Palestinian and
Zionist leaders object to US proposals presented to Security Council for
temporary trusteeship agreement.
Haganah launches Operation Nachshon (first phase of Plan Dalet); Haganah
Giv’ati Brigade and other units capture villages along Tel-Aviv - Jerusalem
road from local Palestinian militia.
April 8: Haganah starts offensive against Palestinian town of
Tiberias.
April 9: ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Husseini, charismatic Palestinian militia
commander in Jerusalem district, is killed leading counterattack to recover
Castel village.
Irgun and Stern Gang massacre some 120 inhabitants in village of Deir
Yassin, western suburb of Jerusalem and three miles from Castel.
April 12: General Zionist Council decides to establish independent
Jewish state in Palestine on May 16th.
April 13 - 20: Operation Har’el under Plan Dalet launched at
conclusion of Operation Nachshon. Villages along Jerusalem road attacked and
demolished.
All subsequent Haganah operations until May 15th undertaken within framework
of Plan Dalet.
April 16: British evacuate town of Safed.
April 17: Security Council resolution calls for military and
political truce.
Haganah starts offensive against town of Safed.
April 20: US submits Palestine trusteeship plan to UN.
April 21: British suddenly evacuate residential quarters of Haifa.
April 22: Haganah launches Operation Misparayim to attack and occupy
Haifa.
Resistance of local Palestinian militia in Haifa collapses.
Haifa’s Palestinian population flees under combined shelling and ground
offensives.
April 25 - 31: Launching of Operation Chametz to conquer Jaffa,
Haganah attacks suburban villages of Tell Rish, Yazur and Salameh.
April 26: Lauching Operation Yevussi for conquest of whole of
Jerusalem; Haganah attacks Palestinian residential quarter of Sheikh Jarrah
in East Jerusalem, cutting off the city from north, but are forced to hand
it over to the British. Haganah’s attempt at cutting off Jerusalem from
Jericho fails.
April 27: Haganah announces coordination of plans with Irgun.
April 28 - 30: Palestinian ALA unit under Michel Issa succeeds in
fighting its way into Jaffa in order to break Haganah siege.
April 30: All Palestinian quarters in West Jerusalem occupied by
Haganah and residents driven out.
May: Israel creates Supervisor of Abandoned Arab Property in Jaffa
and Arab Properties Department.
May 1: Lebanon and Syria decide to send troops to Palestine at end of
Mandate on May 15th.
May 2: Iraq dispatches troops to town of Mafraq, in Transjordan, en
route to Palestine after May 15th. Three planeloads of arms for Haganah
arrive from France.
May 3: Between 175,000 and 200,000 Palestinian refugees are reported
to have fled from areas taken by Zionists.
Jewish colonists from Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem, ambush traffic on
road to city.
May 4: Unit of Transjordan Arab Legion, operating in Palestine under
British command, shells Gush Etzion in retaliation for ambush. British
announces it is studying transitional trusteeship regime for Palestine to
take effect at end of Mandate.
May 5: ALA unit under Michel Issa withdraws from Jaffa, ending city’s
resistance.
May 10: Haganah enters Jaffa.
May 11 - 12: Haganah captures Safed and surrounding villages.
May 12: State of emergency declared in all Arab countries and
able-bodied Palestinian men barred entry to them.
Egyptian parliament decides to send troops to Palestine at end of Mandate.
May 12 - 14: Arrival of second and third Czech arms consignments for
Haganah.
May 13: Arab Legion, ALA and local militia attack and capture Jewish
settlements of Etzion bloc, retaliating for attacks on Hebron road.
Jaffa formally surrenders to Haganah.
May 14: State of Israel proclaimed in Tel Aviv at 4pm.
Haganah launches Operation Schfifon for capture of Old City of Jerusalem.
May 15: British Mandate ends.
Declaration of State of Israel comes into effect.
President Truman recognizes State of Israel. First Egyptian troops cross
border into Palestine and attack colonies of Kfar Darom and Nirim in Negev.
Three Transjordanian Arab Legion brigades cross Jordan River into Palestine.
Lebanese troops retake Lebanese villages of Malkiya and Qadas (on Lebanese
border), attacked and captured earlier by Haganah.
May 17: Haganah captures Acre.
May 18: Syrian troops retake Palestinian town of Samakh, south of
Lake Tiberias, and capture Zionist colonies of Shaar Hagolan and Masada.
Arab Legion units reach Latrun and consolidate blockade of coastal road to
Jewish quarters in Jerusalem.
May 19: Haganah breaks into Old City of Jerusalem. Arab Legion comes
to the rescue of Old City.
May 20: UN Security Council appoints Count Folke Bernadotte as its
mediator in Palestine.
May 22: Security Council resolution calls for cease-fire.
June 11 - July 8: First truce.
June 20: Israel blocks refugee bank accounts.
June 21: Israel passes Abandoned Property Ordinance.
June 24: Israel passes Abandoned Areas Ordinance.
June 28 - 29: Count Bernadotte suggests economic, military and
political union of Transjordan and Palestine containing Arab and Jewish
states: Negev and central Palestine to go to Arabs, Western Galilee to Jews,
Jerusalem to be part of Arab state with administrative autonomy to Jews,
Haifa and Jaffa to be free ports and Lydda free airport. Rejected by both
sides.
July: Israel creates Ministerial Committee for Abandoned Property.
July 7: Security Council calls for prolongation of truce.
July 15: Security Council resolution calls on governments and
authorities concerned to issue indefinite cease-fire orders to their forces
in Palestine to take effect within three weeks. Israel creates Custodian of
Abandoned Property.
July 18 - October 15: Second truce.
September 16: Report by UN mediator Count Bernadotte proposed new
partition of Palestine: Arab state to be annexed to Transjordan and to
include Negev, al-Ramla and Lydda; Jewish state in all of Galilee;
internationalization of Jerusalem; return or compensation of refugees.
Rejected by Arab League and Israel.
September 17: Count Bernadotte murdered in Jerusalem by Stern Gang.
Replaced by his American deputy Ralph Bunche.
November 4: UN Security Council resolution calls for withdrawal of
forces to positions occupied prior to October 14 and establishment of
permanent truce lines.
November 1948 - mid 1949: IDF expels inhabitants from villages 5-15
km inside Lebanese border, followed by expulsions from other Galilee
villages.
December 22 - January 6, 1949: Operation Horev launched to drive
Egyptians out of southern coastal strip and Negev.
Israeli troops move into Sinai until British pressure forces withdrawal.
December 27: IDF Alexandroni brigade’s attack on isolated Egyptian forces in
Faluja pocket is repulsed.
