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days with the fighters who were entrenched in the mountains and wooded terrain on both sides of the road. He could not overcome them until he called for other British forces, which came from the Jerusalem area behind them and from their right and left, while aircraft bombed from the air with incendiary bombs that burned the woodland where they were. Even then they held out until the greater number of soldiers and abundance of weapons overcame them. When the battle ended, the British carried the Palestinian martyrs to the entrance of Bab al-Wad and gathered their weapons and ammunition. When the commander saw those few, old, rusty weapons and the spoiled ammunition, he summoned his soldiers. They gathered around him, and he addressed them, saying: “Soldiers! Have you seen these old weapons and spoiled ammunition with which we fought these heroes?” (They were old rifles from the Ottoman era and hunting rifles.) “Have you seen this paltry remnant of their food?” (It consisted of pieces of dry bread and onions.) “Have you seen the money we found in their pockets?” (It was a few qirsh.) “I ask you, would you have fought if you had been armed with weapons like theirs and your food had been like theirs?” They answered: “No.” He said: “These heroes held us off for three days despite our numbers, their small number, the great difference between our weapons and theirs, and our means and theirs. I ask you to appreciate and respect this heroism.” At that point the soldiers stood and fired into the air from their rifles as a military salute to those heroic martyrs.

This is the testimony of the enemies to the heroes of the Battle of Bab al-Wad and to the other battles fought by the British Army during that brilliant period of the Palestinian revolt.

The Zionists were astonished by the courage of the Palestinian fighters. Ben-Avi, owner of the newspaper Dawar HaYom and one of their leading writers, wrote several articles in 1936 expressing his amazement at the courage of the Arabs of Palestine and his surprise at their steadfastness. In one of them he wrote:

“It is astonishing that these Palestinian Arabs should rise into the mountains and fight the British Army with its aircraft, armored vehicles, and artillery when they possess only some old rifles and hunting guns, and many of them carry a sword or a stick.” He then said: “These Palestinians are the first great obstacle in our path, and we will not be able to achieve our plans unless we deal with them and blunt their strength.”

The British and the Jews had enough experience from their military battles with the Palestinians and their political battles with the Arab Higher Committee to lead them to focus their efforts on removing the Palestinians from the fields of military and political struggle. They pressured the states involved