Battle of Karameh
Battle of Karameh | |||||||
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Part of the War of Attrition and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict | |||||||
King Hussein after checking an abandoned Israeli tank | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Israel (IDF) | |||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Levi Eshkol Uzi Narkiss Moshe Dayan | |||||||
Strength | |||||||
(1 armored brigade 1 infantry brigade 1 paratroop battalion 1 engineering battalion 5 artillery battalions) |
2nd armored division[6] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
Israel: 28[9]– 33 dead[10]69[9] – 161 wounded[10] 27 tanks damaged, 4 left behind[10] 2 APCs[5] 2 vehicles[5] 1 aircraft[10] |
Jordan:
40[11]–84 dead[10] 156 dead[10] ~100 wounded 141 captured[10] | ||||||
175 buildings destroyed[10] |
The Battle of Karameh (
After Jordan lost
Both sides declared victory. On a tactical level, Israel managed to destroy the Karameh camp.[13][9] While on a political level, Jordan and the PLO inflicted relatively high casualties on the Israelis, who left behind three dead soldiers in Karameh along with several damaged Israeli vehicles and tanks—later paraded in Amman by the Jordanian Army.[4] The engagement also marked the first known deployment of suicide bombers by Palestinian fighters,[17] and the issuance of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 248, which unanimously condemned Israel for violating the cease-fire line and its disproportionate use of force.[18]
The battle gained wide acclaim and recognition in the Arab world, and the following period witnessed an upsurge of support from Arab countries to the fedayeen in Jordan. The Palestinians had limited success in inflicting Israeli casualties, but King Hussein allowed them to take credit, to the point of proclaiming "we are all fedayeen".[19][20] However, as the PLO's strength began to grow in the aftermath, the fedayeen began to speak openly of overthrowing the Hashemite monarchy, and the ensuing tensions with the Jordanian authorities eventually precipitated in their expulsion to Lebanon during the events of Black September in 1970.[21]
Background
Palestinian groups used to initiate few attacks on Israeli targets from both the West Bank and Jordan before the Six-Day War, some of which caused Israel to retaliate which became known as the Reprisal operations.[22] Following the seizure of the West Bank from Jordan in the June 1967 Six-Day War, Israel destroyed the existing Palestinian group Fatah networks there. In early 1968, however, Fatah guerrillas began raiding Israel from bases on the Jordanian side of the river. Most of these attacks were blocked by the Israel Defense Forces. At times, Jordanian Army infantry and artillery units gave the Fatah squads covering fire, leading to frequent direct skirmishes between the IDF and the Jordanian Army.[4] On 14–15 February, Jordanian mortars hit several Israeli settlements in the
In February, King Hussein sent twenty carloads of troops and police to order a Fatah unit to leave the town of Karameh. When it arrived, the column found itself surrounded by men wielding machine guns; their commander said "You have three minutes to decide whether you leave or die". They withdrew.[24] By March, several hundred civilians lived in the camp, along with about 900 guerrillas, mostly from Fatah, and PLO leader Yasser Arafat, who had his headquarters there.[7]
In Israel, Chief of the
Prelude
On 4 March,
By 20 March, Jordan had identified parts of the Israeli 7th Armored Brigade, 60th Armored Brigade, 35th Paratroop Brigade, 80th Infantry Brigade, a combat engineer battalion and five artillery battalions between Allenby and Damia bridges. The Jordanians assumed the Israelis were planning an attack with a drive on Amman, and the army took up positions near the bridges, with the 60th Armored Brigade joining the 1st Infantry Division. Jordan also added most of its armored car, antitank and artillery units to the 1st Infantry Division. The total firepower was 105 Patton tanks and 88 artillery pieces. The infantry divisions were deployed near the bridges, each with a tank company. The artillery was mostly deployed on the higher Jordan Valley ridges overlooking Karameh for topological advantage.[27]
The Israeli forces amounted to less than a brigade of armor, an infantry brigade, a paratroop battalion, an engineering battalion and five battalions of artillery. The units were divided into four task forces. The largest of these was to cross the Allenby Bridge and reach Karameh from the south; a second one was to cross the Damia Bridge, and reach Karameh from the north, thus completing a pincer move. Meanwhile, paratroopers were to be lifted by helicopters into the town while the fourth force would make a diversionary attack at King Abdullah Bridge to draw the Jordanian forces from Karameh and to cover the main attack.[27]
Prior to the attack, the
Battle
At 5:30 AM on 21 March, the Israeli forces attacked simultaneously on the three bridges.
At 6:30 AM, Israeli helicopters started landing the bulk of the paratrooper battalion north of Karameh.[33] An Israeli aircraft was supposed to drop leaflets addressed to Fatah, after the paratroopers had surrounded the town; however, due to difficult weather conditions, the helicopters flying the paratroopers arrived twenty minutes too late. Met with resistance by Fatah commandos and Jordanian regulars supported by Jordanian artillery, the paratroopers suffered heavy losses.[34] When the southern task force began their drive north towards Karameh, they encountered a Jordanian infantry brigade supported by armor, artillery and antitank weapons. The Israeli Air Force launched airstrikes, but was only able to inflict minor damage on the dug-in Jordanians. Fighting from their entrenched positions, the Jordanians repelled several Israeli assaults.[32]
In the south, Jordanian artillery shelling prevented the Israelis from erecting another pontoon bridge on the site of the Abdullah bridge, halting the Israeli advance there.[8] After crossing the Allenby Bridge, the 7th Armored Brigade spread in three directions from Shuna: One or more companies drove north to Karameh. An infantry battalion and a tank battalion moved east to block the Salt road. And another infantry battalion moved south to assist the force trying to break across the Abdullah Bridge.[2] Meanwhile, the force that crossed the Damia Bridge established itself on the east bank. Engineers began constructing a new bridge, and the force advanced east to the Musri junction. After taking Musri, their intended advance south to Karameh was repulsed by the northern brigade of the Jordanian 1st Division.[2]
The force driving on Karameh via the Allenby bridge broke through and proceeded to the town, arriving shortly before 7:00.[10] By 8:00 the Israeli forces had taken control of the town, which turned out to be a bigger PLO base than the Israelis expected.[35] Combined with the paratroopers, this Israeli force engaged in heavy fighting against the central brigade of the 1st division and a number of Fatah fighters. Some of the paratroopers and armor drove north to operate in the Fatah camp. The paratroopers destroyed most of the camp; many of the Palestinians, including Arafat, fled eastward.[2] The rest of the Allenby Bridge force was blocked to the east and south of Shuna, by elements of the 1st Division's central and southern brigades, and by a tank battalion from Salt.[33] A small force of Israeli infantry and armor, on the right flank of Israeli forces invading from the south, tried to protect the Allenby Bridge force from attacks by the Jordanian forces deployed near the King Abdullah bridge. The Jordanians attacked with some armor, but the Israelis put up resistance, and the battle turned into a stalemate.[10]
A large force of Israeli infantry and armor went east to block the road from
Meanwhile, Operation Asuta was mounted against a few smaller guerrilla bases south of the Dead Sea, near Safi, where the school bus had struck the mine. The bases were raided by Israeli ground forces with close air support. About 20 Jordanian soldiers and policemen and 20 Fatah fighters were killed, and 27 were taken prisoner. The Israelis suffered no casualties.[10] Frustrated in their hope to entrap the entire PLO force, the Israelis soon pulled out, but had to fight their way back to Israeli territory.[28] At 11:00 the Israelis began to withdraw, with Sikorsky H-34 helicopters evacuating the troops.[29] Because orders came down to recover as many vehicles as possible, they only completed their withdrawal by 20:40.[8] They had planned a rescue for its two tanks which were left in Jordan, but later withdrew the plan.[5]
Casualties
Casualties estimates vary:
- Israel: Kenneth Pollack estimate 28 dead and 69 wounded;[35][37] Shabtai Teveth gives 32 killed and 70 wounded out of a force of 1,000 soldiers.[38] Benny Morris writes that Israel lost 33 dead and 161 wounded.[10] 27 Israeli tanks were damaged by Jordanian artillery, 4 of which were left behind, two half-tracks, six armored cars and one Dassault Ouragan aircraft,[37] although the pilot succeeded in parachuting to safety.[35] A Mirage had to crash land.[10]
- Jordan: Zeev Maoz and Benny Morris cite a figure of some 84 Jordanian soldiers killed and another 250 wounded. Four were captured. 30 tanks were damaged. Other estimates claim 40 dead and 108 wounded.[13]
- PLO: Herzog: 200 dead, 150 captured; Morris: 156 dead, 141 captured;[10] Pollack: 100 dead, 100 wounded, 120–150 captured.[37] According to Morris, a further 20 PLO guerillas were killed and 27 captured during the corresponding Operation Asuta. Teveth states 170 killed and 130 taken prisoner.[10]
Gallery
Aftermath
Israel accomplished its objective of destroying the Fatah camp,
The relatively high casualties were a considerable surprise for the IDF and was stunning to the Israelis. Jordan claimed to have won the battle and stopped an Israeli drive on Balqa Governorate in intentions of occupying it and turning into a security buffer zone, which was supposed to serve as a punishment, due to the Jordanian support to the PLO. The Jordanians made this assumption as they saw the size of the raiding Israeli forces entering the battle.[42] Arafat said "What we have done is to make the world ... realize that the Palestinian is no longer refugee number so and so, but the member of a people who hold the reins of their own destiny and are in a position to determine their own future".[20] Palestinians and Arabs generally considered the battle a psychological victory over the IDF, which had been seen as 'invincible' until then, and recruitment to guerilla units soared.[43] Fatah reported that 5,000 volunteers applied to join within 48 hours of the battle.[20] By late March, there were nearly 20,000 fedayeen in Jordan.[24]
Iraq and Syria offered training programs for several thousand guerrillas. The After the battle, the Fatah membership increased and more than 5000 individuals applied to join Fatah within the next 48 hours following the end of the battle.[45] Fatah also began to engage in communal projects to achieve popular affiliation.[46] The battle of Karameh and the subsequent increase in the PLO's strength are considered to have been important catalysts for the 1970 events of the civil war known as Black September,[47] in which the kingdom managed to expel the Palestinian groups to Lebanon after they had started to gain control over Jordan.[21]
Later, the United Nations Security Council issued resolution 248 which condemned the Israeli raid on Jordanian territory and the violation of the cease-fire line, it recalled on resolutions 237 which had encouraged Israel to ensure the safety of civilians in military areas. The resolution affirmed that reprisals were not to be tolerated and that repetitions of such violations would have forced the Security Council to take further steps.[18]
The battle was the first engagement between the Israelis and Palestinians, in which the latter used suicide bombers.[17] Files released by the IDF in 2011 revealed that the IDF began planning the two operations in 1967, one year before the bus incident. They also revealed that the IDF had practiced crossing the Jordan River in 1966, while Jordan still controlled the West Bank.[5]
Israel maintains that it had performed a coordinated withdrawal after achieving its goal of destroying the Karameh camp. However, few Israeli military personnel who participated in Karameh agree.[5]
According to Lt. Col. Arik Regev, chief of Central Command's operations branch, We didn't expect the Jordanian army to fight the way it did. I don't believe that the commander of the 7th Brigade thought that so many of his tanks would be hit. I'm sure that no one thought that the enemy would respond with artillery fire. You're allowed to make a mistake in assessing a situation but, it seems to me, there was a moment when the assessment could have been altered – when we saw that things weren't turning out as we had thought and that the Jordanians weren't fleeing to Amman. Had we thought that the Jordanian army would act as it did, I'm convinced the air force would have struck first.[5] Moshe Barbalat, a sergeant in the Israeli Armored Corps who lost both his legs in the battle and was awarded the Medal of Distinguished Service, later talked about his participation in Karameh: "Everything was burning around me, and whenever I tried I could not get up."[48]
Dr. Asher Porat stated "lessons of the operation became clear that it was a mistake to fight the Jordanian army."[49]
Muki Betser, a commander in the Sayeret Matkal commando unit, wrote in his book, Both military and political decision makers responsible for the operation worked to make sure the public never knew of the debacle. Instead, in newspaper interviews and speeches, the politicians and generals made Karameh sound like a smashing success.[50] A 2011 Haaretz article, an Israeli media outlet, described the battle as "one of the darkest chapters in Israel's military history".[5]
Arab historians argue that Israel had entered the Battle of Karameh overconfident of its abilities, as it took place just after Israel had defeated the Arabs in the 1967 Six-Day War. The size of the Israeli forces entering Karameh made the Jordanians assume that Israel was also planning to occupy the eastern bank of the Jordan River, including the Balqa Governorate, to create a situation similar to the Golan Heights, which Israel had captured just 10 months prior, to be used a bargaining chip. Jordanians claim that Moshe Dayan invited Israeli journalists on the previous day for lunch in western Jordan after occupying it.[51][52]
The Battle of Karameh was the subject of many artworks, stamps and posters.[53]
Historiography
Israeli historiography
Jordanian and Palestinian historiography
Further reading
References
External links