The Egyptians strengthen their forces. They give up the idea of break-ing through the front at Isdud, and redeploy their troops further south. That is where they are planning the decisive blow.
The Israeli commander knows that a confrontation is coming that will overshadow all the battles so far. He knows that he will again have no reserves, that again he will only have the same rather ragged infantry battalions, along with a few out-of-date field guns. He will have no tanks, no aircraft.
He draws the conclusions from the "Day of Isdud" and establishes a "Battle HQ" to control all movements, even those of smaller units, during the fighting, and to coordinate all the action all the time. The units train. The positions are reinforced. Everything awaits the first shot.
* * *
At this moment comes a blow from an unexpected direction. Reports come in that the inhabitants of some villages in the south want to leave their houses. They have no illusions. The people in Gan-Yavne, in Be’er Tuvia, and in Negba know how things stand. They know that the tanks won against the fighters on Hill 69. They know that the troops who are supposed to protect their houses are weak. They also know that there are no reserves. The few soldiers in the positions will have to hold out-on their own.
The inhabitants are tired. Since the Egyptian invasion they have been helping to build fortifications - without pause. And they also had their agricultural work to do. Not only did the military not feed them, it even seized some of their stores of food. In Gan-Yavne some of the houses have been hit by Egyptian shells. And now the citizens also know that the enemy they are facing has brought in a gigantic force equipped with the most modern weapons.
The local commanders ask the chief to come and talk with the population, andhecomes. He didn’t learn the art of war from books. He believes in people. In soldiers and in citizens. He knows that this ispri-marily a collision of different aims, and that in the end the side with the strongest will, the most convincing, is going to win. He believes that no army can win without the support of the population. And he knows that the population must stay in their houses of their own free will and with-out pressure.
The chief wanders around and talks. Tired citizens, worried about their