For seven months after the assassination of
Lord Moyne by
Lehi in 1944, members of the Palmach under the command of
Shimon Avidan were involved in the
Saison activities, in which they cooperated with the British in an attempt to crush the
Irgun and Lehi. However, with
David Ben-Gurion's decision, 1 October 1945, to launch an armed struggle against the British, the Palmach entered an alliance with the dissident groups, called
The Hebrew Resistance Movement. On 10 October 1945 a force led by
Yitzhak Rabin raided the prison at Atlit freeing 208 Jewish prisoners. The first joint operation took place on
31 October 1945 when the Palmach sank three British patrol boats, 2 in Haifa and one in Jaffa, and were involved in 153 bomb attacks on bridges and culverts of the railway system. On the night of 22 February 1946, the Palmach attacked the police
Tegart fort at
Shefa-'Amr with a 200-pound bomb; in the firefight that followed, the Palmach suffered casualties. In June 1946 the Palmach blew up ten of the eleven
bridges connecting Palestine to its neighbouring countries. Fourteen Palmach members were killed during the attack on
Achziv Bridge. culminating in the
King David Hotel bombing. This attack was the Irgun's response to a British crackdown, "
Black Sabbath", launched on 29 June 1946. A combination of the crackdown and the Jewish civilian leadership's outrage at the King David attack led Ben-Gurion to call off further Palmach operations.
Retaliation raids After a gap of over ten months the Palmach resumed operations. The one weapon of which there was no shortage was locally produced explosives. On 20 May 1947 they blew up a coffee house in
Fajja, specifically in retaliation for the murder of two Jews in nearby
Petah Tikva. Following the escalation of violence after the
UN Partition Resolution the scale of the retaliation operations increased. On 18 December 1947, in an operation approved by Palmach commander
Yigal Allon, several houses were blown up in
al-Khisas, near the Lebanese border; a dozen civilians were killed. On 31 December 1947 170 men from the Palmach launched an attack on
Balad al-Sheikh,
Haifa, in retaliation for the killing of 47 Jews at the
Haifa oil refinery. Several dozen houses were destroyed and 60-70 villagers were killed. Around
Jaffa, Palmach units destroyed houses in
Yazur and
Salama. An order dated 3 January 1948 said "The aim is ... to attack northern part of the village of Salama ... to cause deaths, to blow up houses and to burn everything possible." In the Upper Galilee, the Palmach's third Battalion commanded by
Moshe Kelman, attacked
Sa'sa', 15 February, and blew up ten houses, killing 11 villagers. Further north, they raided
al-Husayniyya, 16 March 1948, in retaliation for a land mine, they blew up five houses and killed "30 Arab adults". In the Northern
Negev, 4 April 1948, a Palmach unit in two armoured cars destroyed "nine bedouin lay-bys and one mud hut" after a mine attack on a Jewish Patrol. During this period, in the event known as the
Convoy of 35, the Palmach lost 18 men (along with 17 other Haganah fighters) on their way to reinforce the garrison at
Kfar Etzion after they were attacked by hundreds of Arab locals and militias. The bodies of the Palmach and Haganah fighters were mutilated to the point that some of them could not be recognized.
A change in objectives On 20 February 1948 the Palmach launched an operation in
Caesarea, North of
Tel Aviv, in which they demolished 30 houses, six were left standing due to lack of explosives. The objective was to prevent them being occupied by British troops as a base against illegal immigrants.
Yitzhak Rabin opposed the attack. Although occupied by Arabs the buildings were Jewish owned. With the activation of
Plan D and its sub-operations Palmach units were used to demolish villages with the objective of preventing them being used by
Palestinian irregulars or the
Arab Liberation Army (ALA) as bases.
Operation Nachshon Following the attempt to clear the road to Jerusalem, Palmach units "more or less systematically leveled the villages of
al-Qastal,
Qalinya,
Khuda and largely or partly destroyed
Beit Surik,
Biddu,
Shu'fat,
Beit Iksa,
Beit Mahsir and
Sheikh Jarrah (
Jerusalem)". On 9 April a Palmach unit with mortars took part in the Irgun attack on
Deir Yassin.
Mishmar Ha'amek Following the failed ALA attack on the Haganah base at Mishmar Ha'amek, and the Haganah's refusal of an offer of a truce, Haganah and Palmach troops counterattacked. Between 8 and 14 April, ten villages came under Palmach's control. Within two weeks they were leveled.
Operation Yiftach and the conquest of Safad On 2 May, the Palmach 3rd Battalion, commanded by
Moshe Kelman, attacked
Ein al-Zeitun with a
Davidka, two
3-inch mortars and eight
2-inch mortars. During the following two days Palmach sappers blew up and burned all the houses. In the aftermath of the capture of this village Battalion Commander Kelman ordered the execution of seventy prisoners. On 6 May the Palmach launched an attack on Safad. It failed to capture the citadel and the Palmach had to withdraw. The defenders offered a cease-fire, which Allon refused. A second attack was launched on 9 May. This was preceded by a "massive concentrated barrage" using mortars and Davidkas. The empty Arab quarter of Safad was occupied on 11 May. Between 12,000 and 15,000 refugees had been created. The Palmach suffered 69 killed during Operation Yiftah. In May 1948 the Palmach had 2,200 permanently mobilised members. A different source puts the size of the Palmach as 3,000 at the end of November 1947, and, following the mobilization of 3,000 reserves, five battalions were formed by May 1948, consisting of 5,000 fighters of whom 1,200 were women. Palmach units took a major part in the
1948 Arab–Israeli War. At the beginning of the war, Palmach units were responsible for holding Jewish settlements (such as
Gush Etzion,
Kfar Darom and
Revivim) against Arab
militias. Although inferior in numbers and arms, Palmach soldiers held out long enough to allow the Haganah to mobilise the Jewish population and prepare for war.
The creation of the Israeli Army after the
conquest of Beersheba The Palmach's last operation as an independent unit was against the Irgun, in the
Altalena Affair. On 22 June 1948 the Irgun moored the Altalena, loaded with weapons, off Tel Aviv. Ben-Gurion ordered the Palmach to prevent the arms being landed. In an operation commanded by
Yigal Allon, with
Yitzhak Rabin as his deputy, a cannon was used to sink the ship. One member of the Palmach and fourteen members of the Irgun were killed. After the establishment of the
Israeli army, the Palmach was reorganised into three IDF brigades—the
Negev Brigade, the
Yiftach Brigade, and the
Harel Brigade. The Negev and Yiftah Brigades fought in the
Negev against the
Egyptian army and managed to stop and later repulse it into the
Gaza Strip and
Sinai. The Yiftah Brigade was later transferred to the north. The Harel Brigade was centered on Jerusalem. The merging of the Palmach into the Israeli army involved a series of power struggles with Ben-Gurion, known as
The Generals' Revolt. In 1949 many senior members of the Palmach resigned from the army. In total, the Palmach lost 1,187 fighters during the war of independence and in the years prior to Israel's creation.
Casualties tank leading a convoy The Palmach memorial site records 37 deaths of Palmach members between May 1941 and May 1945. Thirty-one are described as killed in action, six were killed while serving in the British Army and six were killed in the "Struggle against the British Government". A further 39 members of the Palmach died between the May 1945 and November 1947. Twenty-one are recorded as killed in action and one killed in battle, fourteen being killed during the attempt to blow up the Achziv Bridge during the
Night of the Bridges. Twenty-eight died in the struggle against the British. Between the beginning of December 1947 and the end of May 1948, when the Israeli army was created, 574 deaths are listed, of whom 524 were killed in action or in battle; 77 while on convoy duty or securing roads; 59 during
Operation Yevusi, including 34 at
Nabi Samuel; 20 during
Operation Nachshon, all at al-Qastal; 68 during
Operation Yiftach; 12 at
Mishmar HaEmek. By district 171 members of the Palmach were killed in Jerusalem and the surrounding area, 104 in and around
Gush Etzion, 103 in the Galilee and 81 in the Negev. From June 1948 to December 1949, during which time the Palmach was absorbed into the army, 527 members died, 452 killed in action or in battle; 101 were killed during
Operation Danny, including 45 at
Khirbet Kurikur; 53 during
Operation Yoav; 44 in
Operation Horev and 22 during
Operation Death to the Invader. By district 234 died in the Negev and Southern Plain; 62 in Jerusalem and surrounds; 44 around Latrun; 42 in the Gaza Strip and 41 in the Central Plain and Coastal Strip. By Brigade, 313 members of the Harel Brigade were killed, 312 from the Negev and 274 from the Yiftach. One of the dead is listed as also being a member of the
Lehi. The Palmach memorial site records the death of 34 female members, seventeen killed in action or in battle. Around 520 of the fatalities had been born in Palestine; of whom 117 were from Tel Aviv, 97 from Jerusalem and 56 from Haifa. Over 550 had been born in Europe and Russia; with 181 from Poland, 99 from Germany and 95 from Romania. Another 131 of the dead originated from Arab and Muslim countries; 32 from Turkey, 23 from Syria and 21 from the Yemen. Of the remainder 13 had been born in the USA. Of the dead, 633 were aged between 18 and 22 years, 302 were between 22 and 25, 138 were 26 and over, and 91 were under 18 years of age. == Military organization ==