Historical Background
On 29 November 1947, the General Assembly of United Nations Organization voted in favor of the Partition Plan for Palestine that ended the British mandate creating of two independent Arabic and Jewish states. Upon termination of the mandate on 15 May 1948, Egyptian and Jordanian armies, with a support of additional forces from Iraq and Syria invaded Palestine in order to destroy the newly created State of Israel and take control of its territories. In the beginning of the war, the young State of Israel struggled to stop the invasion forces. Royal Egyptian Air Force bombed Tel-Aviv, the Egyptian Expeditionary Force had advanced to as close to 35km (20miles) from Tel-Aviv. Several kibbutzim in Negev were under the siege. The Jerusalem – Tel-Aviv road was under the control of Transjordanian army. The situation was desperate.
The first truce between the Arab and Israeli forces was declared at 11 June and lasted for 28 days. It followed by 10 days of fierce battles that ended with the second truce lasting until 15 October.
The 2nd truce was used by Israel to reorganize IDF forces. A complex airlift, operation Avak, was lunched to supply the Negev with fresh forces and equipment. The war entered its 3rd phase.
The IDF offensive Operation Yoav started at 15 October 1948. Its goal was to drive a wedge between the Egyptian forces along the coast and the Beersheba–Hebron–Jerusalem road and ultimately to conquer the whole Negev. The offensive had started with IAF operation Egrof (punch) – air bombardment of major Egyptian forces concentrations at Gaza, Beit Jibrin, Faluja, Beersheba and El-Arish. Every single aircraft capable of carrying bombs was used for the operation. This was followed by an IDF operation against Egyptian forces at Beit Jibrin that had fallen under the Israeli control which lead to "operation Moshe", known as the Battle of Beersheva.
The battle for separation corridor was held on the western part of Egyptian front. IDF managed to capture several controlling points at the near Ashekelon and disconnect Faluja from the rest of the Egyptian forces creating “The Faluja Pocket” and forcing the Egyptians to retreat to Gaza from Ashdod and Ashkelon.
