Battle of Beersheba | |||||||
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Part of 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Palestinians | Mandatory Palestine | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Abd Al-Halim Al-Julani ("Shalaf") Military commander of the Hebron | Unknown British police chief † | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
500 [2] | |||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Tens injured One missing 250 rifles and machine guns 50 ammo boxes 50 pistols 200 bombs |
The Battle of Beersheba took place between Palestinian rebels and the British Mandate forces and led to the rebels taking control of the city. [3]
The rebels, with the aid of teachers within the city, kept track of the British army's movements over a lengthy period. This operation was conducted in secrecy and surprise as the British thought Beersheba would not be attacked due to its isolation and lack of Zionist settlers. Al-Jolani commanded a group of insurgents to be stationed on the Jerusalem-Hebron route, and another group to guard south of Hebron and block off the Gaza-Hebron road. This operation was initiated at midday on 9 September, after encircling the town.
The rebels seized 100 old rifles, a large number of helmets and clothes, and a rapid-fire machine gun, along with two bags of spare parts for it. The rebels later used it to shoot down two British planes in the battle of Jourat Bahlas. The rebels also released prisoners. [4]
The rebels did not set up any form of government in the city, as Beersheba was mainly seen as a revolutionary stronghold and the British had limited sway there. Authority over Beersheba was completely regained only in November. [5] [6]
The locals greeted the rebels with ululation and rose water. [7]
A popular uprising by Palestinian Arabs in Mandatory Palestine against the British administration of the Palestine Mandate, later known as The Great Revolt or The Great Palestinian Revolt, lasted from 1936 until 1939, demanding Arab independence and the end of the policy of open-ended Jewish immigration and land purchases with the stated goal of establishing a "Jewish National Home". The uprising coincided with a peak in the influx of immigrant Jews, some 60,000 that year – the Jewish population having grown under British auspices from 57,000 to 320,000 in 1935 – and with the growing plight of the rural fellahin rendered landless, who as they moved to metropolitan centers to escape their abject poverty found themselves socially marginalized. Since the Battle of Tel Hai in 1920, Jews and Arabs had been involved in a cycle of attacks and counter-attacks, and the immediate spark for the uprising was the murder of two Jews by a Qassamite band, and the retaliatory killing by Jewish gunmen of two Arab laborers, incidents which triggered a flare-up of violence across Palestine. A month into the disturbances, Amin al-Husseini, president of the Arab Higher Committee and Mufti of Jerusalem, declared 16 May 1936 as 'Palestine Day' and called for a general strike. The revolt was branded by many in the Jewish Yishuv as "immoral and terroristic", often compared to fascism and Nazism. Ben Gurion, however, described Arab causes as fear of growing Jewish economic power, opposition to mass Jewish immigration and fear of the English identification with Zionism.
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