Operation Shmone (Hebrew: מִבְצָע שְׁמוֹנֶה, Mivtza Shmone, lit. "Eight") was an Israeli military operation conducted against the Egyptian-held police fort of Iraq Suwaydan during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The battle was fought between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Egyptian Army on 9 November 1948, and ended in an Israeli victory. It was the eighth and final attempt by Israeli forces to capture the fort, following seven previous failed attempts.
Background
The Iraq Suwaydan police fort was a British Tegart fort built in the wake of the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine. It occupied a strategic location overlooking the Majdal–Hebron road and the junction with the internal Negev road. When the British withdrew from the area in May 1948, the fort was handed over to Muslim Brotherhood forces. It became a major obstacle to Israeli transportation to the Negev enclave and served as a forward base against Israeli positions, including nearby Kibbutz Negba. The Israelis nicknamed the fort "The Monster on the Hill."
Previous Attempts
Seven prior attempts to capture the fort had failed—five by the Givati Brigade and two by the Negev Brigade—between May and October 1948. These failures were attributed to insufficient firepower, poor coordination, faulty intelligence, and the fort's strong defensive layout, which included five concentric barbed-wire fences and well-fortified positions.
The Operation
The operation was proposed by 8th Brigade commander Yitzhak Sadeh, who concluded after studying the previous failures that neither surprise nor maneuvering would succeed. Instead, he planned a daylight assault using overwhelming firepower, with the attack timed so that the setting sun would blind the Egyptian defenders.
Forces
The attacking force consisted of elements from the Israeli 8th Brigade and Givati Brigade, including:
- Two tanks
- Two half-tracks armed with 6-pounder anti-tank guns
- Two half-tracks armed with flamethrowers
- Artillery support from 75 mm Saint Chamond-Mondragón ("Cucaracha") cannons, 75 mm Krupp cannons, 6-pounder guns, and sixteen 120 mm mortars
- Machine gunners from Givati's 51st Battalion providing cover fire
Battle
The operation began at 14:00 on 9 November 1948 with a heavy artillery barrage. The cannons fired directly at the fort to force the Egyptian defenders to abandon their defensive posts and take shelter inside the building. At 15:47, the Egyptian flag on the southeastern tower was knocked down by a shell, significantly raising Israeli morale.
The main assault started at 15:45 from the northwest, with the setting sun behind the attackers. The armored forces breached the outlying fences without encountering resistance. Tanks from Battalion 82, accompanied by soldiers and a demolitions team from Battalion 89 armed with Bangalore torpedoes, broke through the barbed-wire fences and reached the compound's walls. The demolitions team blew a gap in the western wall, and the Egyptian force manning the fort surrendered as soon as the wall was breached.
Diversionary attacks were also carried out against the villages of Iraq al-Manshiyya and Iraq Suwaydan to prevent reinforcement of the fort.
Casualties
Israeli casualties were relatively light: six killed and 14 wounded. The Israelis captured four medium machine guns, two 3-inch mortars, and a number of PIAT anti-tank weapons, along with Egyptian prisoners of war.
Aftermath
Following the surrender of the fort, the Egyptians decided to evacuate nearby positions, including Bayt 'Affa, the village of Iraq Suwaydan, and positions west of Fallujah. The Israelis immediately capitalized on this, capturing several strategic hills on 9–10 November. The capture of the fort reduced the besieged Fallujah Pocket to the villages of Fallujah and Iraq al-Manshiyya only.
The victory also ended the ongoing threat to nearby Jewish settlements, particularly Kibbutz Negba, which had suffered from prolonged Egyptian artillery shelling. A victory celebration was held in Negba a week later, where Yitzhak Sadeh presented the Egyptian flag captured from the fort to the kibbutz.
The Givati Brigade culture officer, Abba Kovner, renamed the structure Fort Yoav (Hebrew: מְצוּדַת יוֹאָב), after Yitzhak "Yoav" Dubno, who was killed in action at Negba on 21 May 1948. The fort later became an Israeli military base, and the Givati Museum was opened there in the 1980s.
