Day 15 of 599 of מלחמת העצמאות MILḤEMET HAʾAẒMAʾUT (War of Independence)

A seven-vehicle convoy of approximately fifty people left Petah Tikva with fighters, arms and supplies for the location://BenShemen youth village. The Ministry of Defense memorial says the convoy avoided the road through Lydda but was attacked near Beit Nabala by armed Arabs, including Arab Legion soldiers. Thirteen people in the convoy were killed; survivors reached Ben Shemen hours later.¹

The memorial opens its account with the Hebrew date and count:

ביום א' בטבת תש"ח (14.12.1947) […] י"ג מהם נהרגו²

A fuller source study of this episode is available at Arab Legion soldiers and armed Arabs attacked a convoy to Ben Shemen..

On 14 December 1947, Shalom Eshet proposed to דוד בן-גוריון DAVID BEN-GURION that fourteen settlements south of the Gaza–Beersheba line be evacuated because their equipment and reinforcements were inadequate. דוד בן-גוריון DAVID BEN-GURION's diary records his response: plan to reinforce, fortify and supply them instead. By late afternoon he had an Eshet plan calling for 1,549 personnel, protected positions, vehicles and aircraft.³

The plan separately discussed moving children and women who were not serving in defense roles northward. That proposal is not proof that a general evacuation was ordered or completed. A later meeting with agricultural, labor and construction representatives addressed the financing of defenses. These were institutions of יהודים YEHUDIM exercising organized agency under the Mandate, but the force totals and proposed funds were plans, not deployed strength or completed expenditure.

This is Day 15 of the 599-day civil-date series: 1947-12-14. Its OTD route, 5708-10-01, is the daytime fixed-Hebrew conversion of that civil date, not a claim that every action mentioned here occurred before sunset.⁴ The adjacent Hebrew date after local sunset is 2 Tevet 5708 (5708-10-02). The convoy memorial assigns the attack to civil 14 December, 1 Tevet. The Negev planning began in diary entries of 14 December and extended into 15 December; a plan to hold settlements is not proof that every reinforcement or supply delivery occurred that day. Newspaper issue dates, dispatch dates and later testimony are kept distinct from occurrence dates.

• Which event or report fixes the date of this day’s main account?
• What record would resolve the most important remaining timing or casualty question?