Day 18 of 599 of מלחמת העצמאות MILḤEMET HAʾAẒMAʾUT (War of Independence)

Armed attackers struck location://Nevatim on 17 December 1947. The Palmach Association's later account says about sixty men from the Hebron and Beersheba areas fired on settlement members near a water pump and wounded two defenders. The number of attackers is that source's estimate, not an audited force roll.¹

דוד בן-גוריון DAVID BEN-GURION's same-day diary records news that aircraft were sent to the נגב NEGEV. His entry for the following day preserves pilot Pinchas Ben-Porat's account of the mission. Ben-Porat said he flew from תל אביב TEL AVIV in the morning with Eliahu Avivi, carried a machine gun and grenades, attacked armed men from the air, landed near location://Nevatim around 11:20 and transported wounded people. The diary establishes that דוד בן-גוריון DAVID BEN-GURION recorded the pilot's account; the flight log and medical register remain uninspected.²

The Palmach history supports the central fact of an aircraft assisting location://Nevatim but differs in the route and evacuation sequence. Together the sources establish an early armed aviation mission and the settlement's vulnerability; they do not prove this was the first combat flight in the war or establish how many attackers the aircraft killed or wounded.

A fuller source study of this episode is available at A light aircraft aided the defense of location://Nevatim..

This is Day 18 of the 599-day civil-date series: 1947-12-17. Its OTD route, 5708-10-04, is the daytime fixed-Hebrew conversion of that civil date, not a claim that every action mentioned here occurred before sunset.³ The adjacent Hebrew date after local sunset is 5 Tevet 5708 (5708-10-05). The Palmach account and Ben-Gurion's dated diary place the mission on the morning of 17 December. That morning timing supports 4 Tevet. The original flight log and passenger manifest have not been inspected; the sources differ in parts of the route and evacuation sequence. 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?