May 2, 1948 Arab Nations of the Middle East Invade Palestine

THE REGULAR ARMIES OF(E.G. SIX) ARAB NATIONS OF THE MIDDLE EAST INVADED PALESTINE TODAY STRIKING IN THE NORTH AND SOUTH WITH TROOPS AND ARMORED FORCES, JEWISH AND ARAB SOURCES SAID.

                THESE ACCOUNTS SAID THAT SYRIA, LEBANON AND EGYPT HAD SENT POWERFUL MILLITARY FORMATIONS SWEEPING ACROSS THE BORDER AT DAWN SATURDAY, FIFTEEN DAYS BEFORE THE TERMINATION OF THE BRITISH MANDATE OVER THE HOLYLAND.

                Saudi Arabia, Trans-Jordan and Iraq were reported ordering troops to the battle zones or completing final preparation for the drive against the Jews.

                A Damascus dispatch said that the Syrian army apparently threw half its entire strength into the invasion. The big Syrian camp at Katana was almost completely emptied by a lightnig military movement. A few days ago 6,000 regulars and a few hundred volunteers were based there. Residents of the areas said the troops and guns had “gone to Palestine.”

                Sources in Cairo, Egypt, who wished to be described as unofficial, said the Egyptian army had struck across the southern Palestine border into the desert last midnight.

                Arab dispatches to Damascus said King Abdullah of Trans-Jordan had ordered the simultaneous invasion of the Holy Land by the armies of the six Arab countries.

                The haganah gave the following description of the operations in northern Palestine:

                The invasion was masde into the thumb of the Holy Land that juts northward between Syria and Lebanon. One invading force crossed the Lebanese frontier and the other moved across the Syrian border a few miles away.

                Fighting their way forward, the Arab armor reached the defense rings around Dafne, Dan and Ramat Naftali.  Dafne and Dan are adjacent villages located two to three miles inside Palestine from the Syrian frontier. Ramat Naftali, to the southwest, is four miles inside Palestine from the Lebanese frontier.

                “The attackers are using guns, mortars, machine-guns and armored cars,” the Haganah said. “At Ramat NAftali six Lebanese tanks have reached the settlement defenses.”

Source: New York Times, May 2, 1948