A convoy was organized to pass through the Egyptian separation belt into נגב NEGEV overnight. Its movement joined supply vehicles, an escort and temporary covering positions rather than establishing a permanent corridor.

How was the convoy organized?

The GYS 2 study describes twenty-seven trucks, גבעתי GIVATI escort and יפתח YIFTAH covering positions, with the נגב NEGEV Brigade receiving the vehicles farther south. The retrospective account dates the movement to the night July 31–August 1. The outcome is covered in the following day’s recap as well as the shared incident study. 1

Which loss does the memorial place on July 31?

The linked memorial records דוד גולדפרב DAVID GOLDFARB’s death while escorting a convoy after a mine explosion. It gives July 31, 24 תמוז TAMUZ, and identifies an engineer, husband and father of two sons. That date is preserved while the operation’s night converts to the next Hebrew day. No exact explosion hour has been established to reconcile the two. 2

The same escort is not counted again as a new casualty on August 1. The record does not support a claim that he was the last Holocaust survivor of his family.

What made an isolated delivery important?

Earlier attempts to seize a corridor had failed. This operation instead attempted passage through a belt the Egyptians could obstruct without controlling every point continuously. Supplying the communities mattered for both military defense and daily civilian survival. The source gives vehicle movements, without a verified cargo inventory or household distribution record. 3

How is this dated?

TJD uses the fixed Hebrew calendar for Gregorian civil-date conversion. This is Day 245 of the 599-day civil-date series: 1948-07-31. Its daytime route is כ״ד בתמוז ה׳תש״ח 24th 𝑜𝑓 Tamuz, AM 5708; events after local sunset belong to כ״ה בתמוז ה׳תש״ח 25th 𝑜𝑓 Tamuz, AM 5708. The daily recap keeps this civil-date slot distinct from each component’s occurrence, decision, death, dispatch and publication dates. Goldfarb’s memorial pairs July 31 with 24 תמוז TAMUZ; the GYS 2 night operation falls on 25 תמוז TAMUZ. 4 The linked night operation has its own next-day Hebrew route; the recap does not backdate its entire outcome to departure.

Guided reflections

  • What does this day show about the institutions needed to defend independence?
  • How do the occurrence dates differ from the dates of the reports used here?

Footnotes

  1. https://palmach.org.il/history/database/?itemId=8486 Convoy composition and nighttime departure. ↩
  2. https://palmach.org.il/memorial/fighterpage/?itemId=25862 Personal date fields and convoy escort narrative. ↩
  3. https://palmach.org.il/history/database/?itemId=8486 Opening explanation of supply pressure and choice of passage. ↩
  4. https://palmach.org.il/memorial/fighterpage/?itemId=25862 Dated witness and identified component passages. ↩