Negba

On May 15, 1948, Egyptian forces aided by Muslim Brotherhood irregulars invaded Israel in defiance of  the 1947: UN Partition Plan for Palestine: General Assembly Resolution 181 which was to have divided the Palestine Mandate into a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Egyptians invaded through the Gaza Strip.  One fork of the Egyptian force veered headed north toward Tel Aviv, while another headed west toward Jerusalem, invading areas of the Palestine Mandate that had been part of Israel in the Partition Plan. The Egyptian forces, about 6,000 troops (Morris, 2008, page 232) had tanks, armored cars, artillery, machine guns and aircraft for troop support as well as reconnaissance. In all, the the regular invading Arab forces consisted of about 22,500 troops, plus about 10,000 or more Palestinian irregulars. The combat troops of the Israeli Haganah consisted of 16,500 personnel. About 60% of Haganah troops had rifles on May 15, 1948 (Morris, 2008, page 204). Israel had no artillery, perhaps one or two tanks and no combat aircraft, and was fighting a war on three fonts as well as internally, against Palestinian Arabs.

The battle between Israelis and Arabs has often been portrayed in recent years as a battle of well arrmed Zionist colonialist imperialists against helpless oppressed Palestinian peasants. The battles of Negba and similar battles  do not seem to fit into this picture. The kibbutzim that faced the Egyptian and Syrian armies and the commanders of the Haganah were mostly members of Marxist or socialist movements. Abba Kovner, the "cultural officer" of the Givati Brigade, was a member of Hashomer Hatzair and a hero of the Vilna Ghetto revolt. The Egyptian forces that opposed them received the following blessing from Muhammad Mamun Shinawi, rector of Al Azhar University, on May 15, 1948:

The hour of Jihad has struck... A hundred of you will defeat a thousand of the infidels... This is the hour in which Allah promised paradise...Fighters, this is a war there is no avoiding, to defend your women, homes and the fatherland of your fathers and forefathers."

The "First Battle of Negba" as it is generally called, took place on June 1-2, 1948. According to once account (Morris, 2008) the attackers consisted of a single battalion, the Egyptian First Battalion. According to Negba eye witnesses, the 140 defenders were attacked by a force of over a thousand troops, about two battalions.^{(ref )} A similar account is given in Herzog and Gazit, 2005.  p 74, but the spearhead of the attack was the First Battalion under Saad Taha Bey.  The Egyptian movements were discerned fairly accurately by the defenders, despite alleged use of smokescreen in attack and withdrawal.

The defenders noted concentrations of Egyptian troops moving on the roads toward Negba on June 1. Toward evening on June 1, the Egyptians opened up an artillery barrage that escalated over night to reach a rate of about 600 artillery and mortar shells an hour. Meanwhile, enemy troop movements were noted in Ibdis, Iraq Suweidan village and Beit Affa, and Egyptian armor began advancing from Iraq El-Suweidan police fort. The attack was spearheaded by a central column of 7 tanks. To the west, about 300 meters behind, there were four armored cars, and on the ridge between the police fort and the kibbutz there were another eight armored cars. The Egyptian infantry formed up south of the armor.

The battle followed a pattern similar to that seen in other such attacks. The Jewish defenders had no long range weapons that were effective against tanks and armored cars. Therefore, the only choice was to allow the invaders to advance close to the lines, and then open fire from more or less well defended emplacements.  By 07:00 hours the tank column had reached within 100 meters of the southern fence of the kibbutz, the high point of the attack.  The Egyptian infantry passed the the tanks in two waves. Of course, the Egyptian artillery could no longer support the attack as the forces were too close to each other. The defenders opened up up withering fire from their trenches at the infantry, and sent attackers with Molotov cocktails against the tanks. The lead tank was, according to various versions, either fought off by a PIAT gun or turned tail after an unsuccessful Molotov cocktail attack. The other tanks followed suit, two of them being hit by mines.

At this point, jeeps of the motorized machine gun commandos, the IDF Negev Beasts, which had been temporarily seconded to the Givati brigade, appeared on the Julis hills on the Egyptian flank. The Egyptians interpreted this as the beginning of an Israeli counter attack, and began to retreat. About 100 Egyptians are estimated to have been killed, versus eight defenders dead and eleven wounded.

The Egyptians continued to harass Negba until the truce of June 11. The time of the truce was used to reform the defenses of the Kibbutz. These had been adequate to hold off attacks by irregulars, but were next to useless in defense against a regular army. Communications had been conducted through above ground telephone wires that were destroyed by enemy fire, and trenches and mine defenses were weak.

The Second Battle of Negba

Following a five hour air and artillery attack, the Egyptians attacked with air, armor and artillery support, in several waves. At several points it appeared that the kibbutz would not hold out, as "wave upon wave" of enemy infantry advanced, spearheaded by tanks. At about 11:00 hours, the attackers had reached within 50 meters of the perimeter fence. However, as each wave of attackers came within range, they were met by withering force from the defenders and forced to fall back. By sunset, the Egyptians retreated, leaving behind four Bren gun carriers, a disabled tank and many dead. The Egyptians suffered about 200-300 dead. General al Muwawi dismissed Fourth Brigade operations commander Mohamed Naguib (later to lead the Egyptian officer's coup).  The Israeli defenders had 5 dead and 16 wounded. Abba Kovner called the defense, "Negbagrad," referring to the steadfast Soviet defense of Stalingrad in World War II.

By any account, both battles of Negba were extraordinary military victories, and could not be attributed to superior arms, superior numbers, training, or organization of the Jewish forces. By the least favorable account, the defenders of Negba were outnumbered by more than 3 to 1 in each battle, and lacked heavy armament. 

Unlike the earlier battles of Yad Mordechai, Nirim and Degania, the battles of Negba were fought at a time when the Israeli military had begun to receive arms and ammunition and consolidate itself as a force. The Givati Brigade, with 2,500 troops, launched several major, if uncoordinated and indecisive, attacks in this period.  Moreover, unlike Nirim, Negba was a point that was due to be given up and was only there to "buy time." Negba was a strategic location that faced Iraq al Suweidan and was the hinge of the Israeli line. It should have gotten massive reinforcement. However, the disorganization of Israeli forces and the poverty of resources was such that even on June 12 it was forced to fight from a position of considerable inferiority.

Negba Today

Negba today has about 600 members. A museum tells the story of the battle of Negba and is open to tourists.