Day 116 of 599 of מלחמת העצמאות MILḤEMET HAʾAẒMAʾUT (War of Independence)

The regional history describes a noon departure, a disabled escort vehicle and a truck attacked with gunfire and incendiaries. It records fourteen dead and eleven wounded; another retrospective source gives six wounded. Attack on the convoy to עטרות ATAROT and נווה יעקב NEVE YAAKOV. keeps the deaths, wounded-count dispute and later settlement evacuation separate.^{1 2}

This convoy was carrying means of defense to small communities. Its loss endangered future resistance without proving that the communities themselves were evacuated that day.

JTA's 25 March bulletin describes eleven dead in one armored engagement near נווה יעקב NEVE YAAKOV and twelve in another road engagement. The first may overlap the fourteen-person memorial total. The headline's combined losses cannot simply be added to it.³

Finkel and Kadish's later road-war study dates a failed פורים PURIM convoy to 24 March, while subsequent JTA relative dating may place related fighting on 25 March. The original convoy log is needed before these descriptions are merged or split into additional Events. Neither an identical road nor a similar toll settles identity.⁴

An American memorandum considered policy alternatives if a truce could not be achieved. It records options, not the lifting of an arms embargo or adoption of every recommendation.⁵

דוד בן-גוריון DAVID BEN-GURION's diary records procurement reports, transfers of money and weapons still awaiting production or shipping. It also distinguishes successful experiments from production not yet begun. These preparations mattered to the capacity for self-defense; recording a purchase did not put its cargo into a defender's hands that day.⁶

This is Day 116 of the 599-day civil-date series: 1948-03-24. Its daytime portion maps to י״ג באדר ב׳ ה׳תש״ח 13th 𝑜𝑓 Adar II, AM 5708. After local sunset the Hebrew date changes to י״ד באדר ב׳ ה׳תש״ח 14th 𝑜𝑓 Adar II, AM 5708. The daily route does not assign every reported incident to that Hebrew date.

The Atarot history places departure around noon on 24 March, on 13 Adar II. The memorandum and diary also bear 24 March. Other road fighting is represented by a 25 March bulletin, a 26 March bulletin’s relative dating and a later study assigning a Purim convoy to 24 March; their exact relationship remains unresolved.^{7 8}

• Which reported deaths may already be included in the memorial total?
• What separates purchased weapons from supplies actually available to defenders?