Irgun Blasts Prisoners out of AcreCIE+
May 4, 1947 The Irgun sets off explosives at 4:22 p.m. to blast open a hole in the wall of the Acre (Akko) fortress, used as a prison by the British Mandatory authorities, in an…
Irgun Flogs British Troops in StreetsCIE+
December 29, 1946 The underground militant movement Irgun carries out the Night of the Beatings, an effort across Palestine to flog British soldiers in retribution for the lashing of captured Irgun members. Irgun members abduct…
British Round Up Resistance Fighters
June 29, 1946 The British military launches Operation Agatha, a two-week series of raids and arrests of Jewish resistance fighters, on a day that comes to be known as Black Sabbath. Involving some 17,000 soldiers,…
Shin Bet Head Ami Ayalon Is Born
June 27, 1945 Ami Ayalon, who leads the Shin Bet and the Israeli navy, is born in Tiberias. He serves in the navy from 1963 to 1996. He volunteers for the Shayetet 13 commando unit,…
Haganah Founder Eliyahu Golomb Dies
Eliyahu Golomb, prominent leader of the Jewish defense effort in Palestine, passed away at the age of 52.
Nazis Kill Palmach Paratrooper Haviva ReikCIE+
November 20, 1944 Haviva Reik and two other paratroopers from British Mandatory Palestine are among about 40 Jewish fighters executed by the Nazis after the suppression of an uprising in Slovakia. Reik, who was born…
Hannah Senesh Is ExecutedCIE+
Hannah Senesh (Szenes), the poet and Haganah fighter who parachuted into Nazi-occupied Europe to rescue Jews, is executed by Hungarian firing squad in a Budapest prison courtyard.
Haganah Forms Elite PalmachCIE+
The Palmach, an elite strike force of the Haganah, goes on to play a significant role in the 1948-1949 war.
Refugee Ship Patria Is SunkCIE+
November 25, 1940 A Haganah bomb does more damage than intended to the immigrant transport ship SS Patria, which sinks within 16 minutes in Haifa’s harbor, killing 267 people, including members of the British crew,…
Irgun Radio Begins BroadcastingCIE+
March 15, 1939 Kol Tzion HaLokhemet (“Voice of the Fighting Zion”), the underground radio network operated by the Irgun, sends out its first broadcasts across Palestine as Esther Raziel-Naor hits the airwaves. The network broadcasts…
Mosul-Haifa Pipeline OpensCIE+
The Mosul-Haifa pipeline, which spans 590 miles, connects the Mosul oil fields and the Mediterranean Sea. It begins in Kirkuk, Iraq and ends in Haifa.
Magen David Adom Is Founded
The idea of an emergency medical society such as Magen David Adom is revived in response to the 1929 Arab riots against Jewish settlements in Palestine.
Gen. Rafael Eitan Is BornCIE+
January 11, 1929 Rafael Eitan, the 11th chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces, is born in Tel Adashim to a mother whose family immigrated to Palestine during the First Aliyah and a father…
Ariel Sharon Is BornCIE+
Ariel Sharon, Israel’s 11th Prime Minister, is born in K’far Malal (near Hod Hasharon). Born Ariel Scheinerman to political, socialist parents who had come to Eretz Yisrael during the Second Aliyah, Sharon joined the Haganah in 1945, serving in the War of Independence.
Israeli Spymaster Rafi Eitan Is BornCIE+
November 23, 1926 Rafi Eitan, whose intelligence career ranges from the high of capturing Adolf Eichmann in Argentina to the low of handling U.S. Navy analyst Jonathan Pollard as a spy, is born on a…
Gen. Haim Bar-Lev Is BornCIE+
November 16, 1924 Haim Bar-Lev, an Israel Defense Forces chief of staff, is born in Vienna, Austria. His family moves to Yugoslavia before settling in Palestine in 1939. He studies at the Mikveh Israel agricultural…
Gen. Avraham Tamir Is BornCIE+
November 9, 1924 Avraham Tamir, a military strategic mastermind who rises to the rank of major general, is born. He is one of the first Israeli officials to meet with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and…
Yitzhak Rabin Is BornCIE+
Yitzhak Rabin, Israel’s 5th Prime Minister, is born in Jerusalem to parents who came to Israel during the Third Aliyah. He is the first Israeli Prime Minister to be born in Eretz Yisrael.
Mossad’s Meir Amit BornCIE+
March 17, 1921 Meir Amit, a career soldier who builds the Mossad into an internationally renowned intelligence agency, is born Meir Slutzky on the shores of the Sea of Galilee in Tiberias. He attends agricultural…
Riots Break Out in Jerusalem’s Old City During Muslim FestivalCIE+
A Muslim pilgrimage festival erupts into violence against Jews in Jerusalem, leaving nine dead and hundreds wounded.
Arab Raiders Attack Tel HaiCIE+
March 1, 1920 A Shi’ite Arab militia, accompanied by local Bedouins, attacks the Jewish agricultural settlement of Tel Hai, which has served as a border outpost in the Upper Galilee between British-controlled Palestine and French-controlled…
General, Archaeologist Yigael Yadin Is BornCIE+
March 20, 1917 Yigael Yadin, a general known for his archaeological work, is born in Jerusalem. His father is an archaeologist, and his mother is a women’s rights activist. Yadin joins the Haganah when he…
Air Force Founder Yisrael Amir Is BornCIE+
November 11, 1902 Yisrael Amir, the first commander in chief of the Israeli Air Force, is born in Vilna in the Russian Empire as Yisrael Zabludovsky. He makes aliyah in 1923 and that year joins…
