Operation Barak ( he, מבצע ברק, ''Mivtza Barak'', lit. ''Operation Lightning'') was a

Haganah Haganah ( he, הַהֲגָנָה, lit. ''The Defence'') was the main Zionist paramilitary organization of the Jewish population ("Yishuv") in Mandatory Palestine between 1920 and its disestablishment in 1948, when it became the core of the ...

offensive launched just before the end of the British Mandate in Palestine. It was part of

Plan Dalet A plan is typically any diagram or list of steps with details of timing and resources, used to achieve an objective to do something. It is commonly understood as a temporal set of intended actions through which one expects to achieve a goal. ...

. Its objective was to capture villages North of Gaza in anticipation of the arrival of the Egyptian army. It was undertaken by the newly formed

Giv'ati brigade The 84th "Givati" Brigade ( he, חֲטִיבַת גִּבְעָתִי, , "Hill Brigade" or "Highland Brigade") is an Israel Defense Forces infantry brigade. Until 2005, the Brigade used to be stationed within the Gaza Strip and primarily per ...

, commanded by

Shimon Avidan Shimon Avidan ( he, שמעון אבידן; February 7, 1911 – September 11, 1994), born Siegbert Koch ( he, זיגברט קוך), was an Israeli soldier and officer, the commander of the Givati Brigade during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Born in ...

Background

Operational orders defined the Giv'ati

brigade A brigade is a major tactical military formation that typically comprises three to six battalions plus supporting elements. It is roughly equivalent to an enlarged or reinforced regiment. Two or more brigades may constitute a division. Br ...

s objectives as: "To deny the enemy a base ... creating general panic and breaking his morale ... cause the flight of the inhabitants of the smaller settlements in the area." Commander Avidan's instructions were: "You will determine alone, in consultation with your Arab affair advisers and Intelligence Service officer, the villages in your zone that should be occupied, cleaned up or destroyed." According to historian

Benny Morris Benny Morris ( he, בני מוריס; born 8 December 1948) is an Israeli historian. He was a professor of history in the Middle East Studies department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in the city of Beersheba, Israel. He is a member of t ...

, Avidan preferred the latter option.
As a prelude, the Giv'ati brigade's first action took place on 4 May 1948 when the brigade occupied '

Aqir Aqir, also spelt Akir and Akkur, was a Palestinian Arab village in the Ramle Subdistrict, located 9 km southwest of Ramla and 1 km north of Wadi al-NasufiyyaKhalidi, 1990, p. 359 (today called Nahal Ekron). It was depopulated and demol ...

, south west of al-Ramle, population 2,480.

Operation

The

offensive Offensive may refer to: * Offensive, the former name of the Dutch political party Socialist Alternative * Offensive (military), an attack * Offensive language ** Fighting words or insulting language, words that by their very utterance inflict inj ...

was launched on 9 May with

Bayt Daras Bayt Daras ( ar, بيت دراس) was a Palestinian Arab town located northeast of Gaza and approximately above sea level, which was depopulated in 1948. History A grave, dating to the Hellenistic era, probably from the first half of the thi ...

being subjected to mortar bombardment prior to being occupied. Subsequently, village houses were blown up. A second round of attacks were launched on 15 May.

Aftermath

Two months later the Giv'ati brigade carried out a further operation in this area capturing at least 16 villages and creating 'more than 20,000' refugees.Morris, pp.212,213, reference given as Giv'ati Brigade's official history (in Hebrew).

Communities captured during Operation Barak

References

Bibliography

Walid Khalidi Walid Khalidi ( ar, وليد خالدي, born 1925 in Jerusalem) is an Oxford University-educated Palestinian people, Palestinian historian who has written extensively on the 1948 Palestinian exodus, Palestinian exodus. He is a co-founder of the ...

, All That Remains, . Uses 1945 census for population figures. *

, The Birth of the Palestinian refugee problem, 1947–1949, . {{Israeli operations in the 1948 war

Operation Barak Operation Barak ( he, מבצע ברק, ''Mivtza Barak'', lit. ''Operation Lightning'') was a Haganah offensive launched just before the end of the British Mandate in Palestine. It was part of Plan Dalet. Its objective was to capture villages Nor ...