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Operation Ben-Ami (Hebrew: מבצע בן עמי) was one of the last operations launched by the Haganah before the end of the British Mandate. The first phase of this operation was the capture of Acre. A week later four villages east and north of Acre were captured. The Carmeli Brigade of the Haganah allegedly used biological warfare in the battle for Acre in May 1948.

Background

After the fall of Jaffa and Haifa the only remaining Arab towns with access to the Mediterranean Sea were Gaza and Acre. The population of Acre was swollen with refugees from Haifa which had been captured three weeks earlier. There was an outbreak of typhoid in Acre in the first week of May. British, Arab, and Red Cross documents reveal that Haganah forces introduced poison into wells in Acre, leading to severe illness among dozens of local residents. The contamination of these wells triggered a typhoid epidemic and "a state of extreme distress" among the inhabitants, as noted by the mayor of Acre on 3 May.

The operation

The operation was carried out by the Carmeli Brigade, commanded by Moshe Carmel landed by Shayetet 11. It took place in territory allocated to the Arab State in the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, which was rejected by the Arab leaders and governments that indicated an unwillingness to accept any form of territorial division. The Plan was accepted by the Yishuv, except for its fringes. The operation was launched on 13 May 1948 with the capture of villages east of Acre cutting the town off from the interior. On the night of 16/17 May, a mortar barrage was unleashed on the town and the following night it surrendered. The second phase was launched on 20 May. Carmel's operational order of 19 May read: "To attack in order to conquer, to kill among the men, to destroy and burn the villages..." One of the villages captured, al-Kabri, was singled out for particularly harsh treatment because of the villagers' involvement in the destruction of a convoy two months earlier. The Carmeli Brigade was involved in one further operation in the area on 11 June when they captured the village of al-Birwa. Ten days later a group of around 200 villagers re-took the village and remained there for two days until, on advice from the Arab Liberation Army, they withdrew and the village was retaken by newly established Israeli Army.

Aftermath

About 5,000-6,000 Palestinians remained in Acre after its conquest—more than were left in Haifa or Jaffa. The inhabitants who remained in the villages, mostly old people or Christians, were gathered together at Mazra'a. Most of the populations either fled to Lebanon or inland to Nazareth. Most buildings in the villages were systematically blown up.

Arab communities captured during Operation Ben-Ami

See also

• Depopulated Palestinian locations in Israel
• 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine

References

1. Ginsburg, Mitch (17 September 2013). "'Should there be a need': The inside story of Israel's chemical and biological arsenal". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 7 September 2024.
2. Ahmed, Nasim (11 October 2022). "Historians reveal Israel's use of poison against Palestinians". Middle East Monitor. Retrieved 7 September 2024.
3. Morris, p.124:"The brigade was not ordered by Haganah General Staff or its commander to drive out the civilian population but it is probable that Moshe Carmel wanted the operation to end in both the conquest and evacuation by the Arabs of the area."
4. Benny Morris (2008). 1948: a history of the first Arab-Israeli war. Yale University Press. pp. 66, 67, 72. ISBN 9780300126969. Retrieved 24 July 2013. p.66, at 1946 "The League demanded independence for Palestine as a "unitary" state, with an Arab majority and minority rights for the Jews."; p.67, at 1947 "The League's Political Committee met in Sofar, Lebanon, on 16–19 September, and urged the Palestine Arabs to fight partition, which it called "aggression," "without mercy." The League promised them, in line with Bludan, assistance "in manpower, money and equipment" should the United Nations endorse partition."; p. 72, at Dec 1947 "The League vowed, in very general language, "to try to stymie the partition plan and prevent the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine
5. Benny Morris (2008). 1948: a history of the first Arab-Israeli war. Yale University Press. p. 73. ISBN 9780300126969. Retrieved 24 July 2013. "p73 All paid lip service to Arab unity and the Palestine Arab cause, and all opposed partition...; p. 396 The immediate trigger of the 1948 War was the November 1947 UN partition resolution. … The Palestinian Arabs, along with the rest of the Arab world, said a flat "no"… The Arabs refused to accept the establishment of a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. And, consistently with that "no," the Palestinian Arabs, in November–December 1947, and the Arab states in May 1948, launched hostilities to scupper the resolution's implementation; p. 409 The mindset characterized both the public and the ruling elites. All vilified the Yishuv and opposed the existence of a Jewish state on "their" (sacred Islamic) soil, and all sought its extirpation, albeit with varying degrees of bloody-mindedness. Shouts of "Idbah al Yahud" (slaughter the Jews) characterized equally street demonstrations in Jaffa, Cairo, Damascus, and Baghdad both before and during the war and were, in essence, echoed, usually in tamer language, by most Arab leaders. "
6. Benny Morris (2008). 1948: a history of the first Arab-Israeli war. Yale University Press. p. 75. ISBN 9780300126969. Retrieved 24 July 2013. " p. 75 The night of 29–30 November passed in the Yishuv's settlements in noisy public rejoicing. Most had sat glued to their radio sets broadcasting live from Flushing Meadow. A collective cry of joy went up when the two-thirds mark was achieved: a state had been sanctioned by the international community. ; p. 396 The immediate trigger of the 1948 War was the November 1947 UN partition resolution. The Zionist movement, except for its fringes, accepted the proposal."
7. The Question of Palestine: Brochure DPI/2517/Rev.1: Chapter 2, The Plan of Partition and end of the British Mandate
8. Morris, p.109.
9. ^ Morris, p.125.
10. 'All that remains.' p.20.
11. 'All that remains', pp.9-10.
12. Morris, p. 109.

Bibliography

• Walid Khalidi, All That Remains, ISBN 0-88728-224-5.
• Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian refugee problem, 1947–1949, ISBN 0-521-33028-9.

• 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine
• Battles and operations of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War
• May 1948 events in Asia
• Plan Dalet