Day 393 of 599 of מלחמת העצמאות MILḤEMET HAʾAẒMAʾUT (War of Independence)

The institutional הפלמ״ח HAʾPALMAḤ history places the assault on ניצנה NIẒANA in the afternoon of December 26, following a difficult approach by armored and infantry units. It says a renewed assault succeeded the next day. The liberation study includes the failure and the December 27 success without treating them as one occurrence. ¹

The military account concerns formations and terrain. It does not establish a complete civilian casualty or displacement record for the locality.

The December 26 diary reports bombardments and targets around the الفالوجة AL-FALUJA pocket, ניצנה NIẒANA, El Arish, רפיח RAFIAḤ and بئر عسلوج BIR ʿASLUJ. It also recapitulates December 24 operations. The date heading does not automatically assign every item in the entry to December 26. ²

Names of planned or struck targets do not establish lasting Israeli control. In particular, operations toward El Arish cannot be called liberation of the city. The diary and the later history also leave a civilian casualty gap that remains explicit.

After sunset, the date changed to כ״ה בכסלו ה׳תש״ט 25th 𝑜𝑓 Kislev, AM 5709 and Hanukkah began. A community could display a seasonal lamp before that date, as the Mishmar HaEmek memorial narratives report, without changing the festival boundary. The bombing study therefore retains the earlier December 24 attack and its distinct Hebrew night. ³

The calendar lets the reader distinguish sacred time, a civil-day military rundown and a later author’s seasonal framing. It is not evidence that all units observed the festival in the same way.

This is Day 393 of the 599-day civil-date series: 1948-12-26. Its daytime public route is כ״ד בכסלו ה׳תש״ט 24th 𝑜𝑓 Kislev, AM 5709; an occurrence after local sunset belongs to כ״ה בכסלו ה׳תש״ט 25th 𝑜𝑓 Kislev, AM 5709. This route identifies the daily rundown, not the clock or Hebrew date of every event it covers. The failed afternoon assault is explicitly December 26 in the הפלמ״ח HAʾPALMAḤ history. The diary retains its earlier-event references. The first candle after sunset belongs to the adjacent Hebrew route, not the daytime daily route. ^{4 5}

• Why does the first candle not date the campaign opening?
• Which original record would most improve the precision of this day’s account, and what would it establish?