The southern airstrip became usable, night reinforcements followed and prisoner repatriations began on the Egyptian front.

When did the aircraft land?

The reconstruction places readiness at שדה אברהם SDE AVRAHAM around 11 a.m. and the first aircraft around 6 p.m. on March 7. More arrived after midnight. Those night flights fall on the following Hebrew date, even though they belong in the civil-day account. The airstrip study preserves the source clocks and their limits.1

What happened on the eastern route?

The later גולני GOLANI account dates arrival at עין ויבה EIN WIBA to March 7 and describes it as empty of the opposing force. That is a military observation, not evidence of a civilian evacuation or expulsion. The subsequent route and engagement require their own dates.2

Which diplomatic obligations entered implementation?

The Egyptian prisoner study covers transfers over March 7–9. The UN’s 144 Israeli and 1,216 Egyptian totals describe the whole operation, not this first day alone. Separately, the UN transmitted the membership recommendation on March 7; it did not hold another admission vote that day.34

How is this dated?

This is Day 464 of the 599-day civil-date series, 1949-03-07. The date register’s fixed-Hebrew daytime conversion is ו׳ באדר ה׳תש״ט 6th 𝑜𝑓 Adar, AM 5709; after sunset it is ז׳ באדר ה׳תש״ט 7th 𝑜𝑓 Adar, AM 5709. This route identifies the daily recap. It does not assign earlier occurrences, evening movements, cumulative counts or later newspaper issues to the daytime Hebrew date. The cited source dates and reconstructed clocks are distinguished in the sections above and in the linked major studies.5

Guided reflections

  • Which Hebrew date applies to the first night landings and the aircraft after midnight?
  • How could transfer rosters prevent the three-day prisoner total from being counted repeatedly?

Footnotes

  1. Military heritage map, Sde Avraham airstrip, Readiness, first two aircraft and five after midnight. ↩
  2. Military heritage map, eastern valley route, March 7 stage of eastern advance. ↩
  3. Riley, UN S/1459, February 12, 1950, Egyptian-Israeli commission, prisoner-exchange paragraph. ↩
  4. United Nations Yearbook, 1948–49, March 7 transmission. ↩
  5. Military heritage map, Sde Avraham airstrip, Dated source and evidence limits identified above. ↩

Works cited

  1. Military heritage map, Sde Avraham airstrip. Later military heritage reconstruction, recovered indexed web text after direct redirect failures. Metadata and narrative distinguished; underlying operational documents uncollated. https://moreshet-map.org.il/step-5/מבצע-עובדה/שדה-אברהם/. Accessed October 11, 2026.
  2. Military heritage map, eastern valley route. Later military heritage reconstruction, recovered indexed web text after direct redirect failures. Metadata and narrative distinguished; underlying operational documents uncollated. https://moreshet-map.org.il/step-5/מבצע-עובדה/בדרך-הערבה/. Accessed October 11, 2026.
  3. Riley, UN S/1459, February 12, 1950. Chief of Staff report, S/1459, February 12, 1950, Egyptian-Israeli commission subsection. Retrospective implementation account. Impossible February 29 endpoint in adjacent withdrawal passage preserved as a source defect; prisoner passage gives March 7–9. https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-176894/. Accessed October 11, 2026.
  4. United Nations Yearbook, 1948–49. Hosted text or indexed recovery. Original manuscripts, photographic clocks and cited underlying histories are not inferred to have been inspected. https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-200016/. Accessed October 11, 2026.