The force consisted of three infantry brigades, the Negev Brigade, the Givati Brigade and the Yiftach Brigade, an armored batallion from the 8th Armored Brigade and the largest artillery formation that had ever been availible to the IDF at the time. On October 18 the Oded Brigade also joined in the operation.
In the evening of October 15 the Israeli Air Force bombed Gaza, Majdal and Beit Hanun. A batallion of the Yiftach Brigade mined the railroad between El-Arish and Rafah and various roads in the Gaza area. Two batallions of the Givati Brigade drove south east of Iraq El-Manshiyeh thus cutting the road between Faluja and Beit Guvrin.
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2 Palestinian communities captured in Operation Yoav 3 Brigades participating in Operation Yoav 4 See also 5 External links & References |
In the central and northern parts of Palestine, the Israelis had managed to make substantial territorial gains before the second truce of the war went into effect. Bu the southern Negev Desert, that was alloted to a Jewish state in the 1947 Partition plan for Palestine, was still under Egyptian control. Therefore Operation Ten Plagues (after the punishment God sent to the Egyptians for holding the Israelis captive in the Old Testament) was made and approved at a Cabinet Session October 6, 1948.
The pretext to launch the operation came at October 14, 1948 when 16 trucks heading for a Jewish settlement was fired on as it passed through Egyptian positions. Ralph Bunche who had became UN mediator after the assassination of Count Folke Bernadotte asserted:
Pretext
He urged the Israelis to cease the attack and to return to its pre-14 October lines, but Israel refused by saying that it "stands by its claim to the whole of the Negev."
| Name | Date | Resistance | Brigade |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kawkaba | October 20, 1948 | n/a | Givati Brigade |
Brigades participating in Operation Yoav
See also
External links & References