Ammunition Hill (, ''Giv'at HaTahmoshet''; ) was a fortified

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

ian military post in the northern part of Jordanian-ruled East Jerusalem and the western slope of

Mount Scopus Mount Scopus ( ', "Mount of the Watchmen/ Sentinels"; ', lit. "Mount Lookout", or ' "Mount of the Scene/Burial Site", or "Mount Syenite") is a mountain (elevation: above sea level) in northeast Jerusalem. Between the 1948 Arab–Israeli ...

. It was the site of one of the fiercest battles of the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War, also known as the June War, 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states, primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan from 5 to 10June ...

. Ammunition Hill is now a national memorial site.

Historical background

Ammunition Hill was located west of a

police academy A police academy, also known as a law enforcement training center, police college, or police university, is a training school for police cadets, designed to prepare them for the law enforcement agency they will be joining upon graduation, or to o ...

, with a fortified trench connecting them. The site was built by the British during their

Mandatory Palestine Mandatory Palestine was a British Empire, British geopolitical entity that existed between 1920 and 1948 in the Palestine (region), region of Palestine, and after 1922, under the terms of the League of Nations's Mandate for Palestine. After ...

in the 1930s, and was used to store the police academy's ammunition. The Jordanian

Arab Legion The Arab Legion () was the police force, then regular army, of the Emirate of Transjordan, a British protectorate, in the early part of the 20th century, and then of the Jordan, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, an independent state, with a final Ar ...

seized control of the hill during the

1948 Arab–Israeli War The 1948 Arab–Israeli War, also known as the First Arab–Israeli War, followed the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine, civil war in Mandatory Palestine as the second and final stage of the 1948 Palestine war. The civil war becam ...

, severing the link between

and

West Jerusalem West Jerusalem or Western Jerusalem (, ; , ) refers to the section of Jerusalem that was controlled by Israel at the end of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. As the city was divided by the Green Line (Israel's erstwhile border, established by ...

. In the wake of the

1949 Armistice Agreements The 1949 Armistice Agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt,enclave An enclave is a territory that is entirely surrounded by the territory of only one other state or entity. An enclave can be an independent territory or part of a larger one. Enclaves may also exist within territorial waters. ''Enclave'' is so ...

in Jordanian-held territory, with the Jordanians blocking access to

Hadassah Medical Center Hadassah Medical Center () is an Israeli medical organization established in 1934 that operates two university hospitals in Jerusalem (one in Ein Karem and one in Mount Scopus) as well as schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing, and pharmacology ...

and the campus of the

Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI; ) is an Israeli public university, public research university based in Jerusalem. Co-founded by Albert Einstein and Chaim Weizmann in July 1918, the public university officially opened on 1 April 1925. ...

on the hilltop. The post consisted of tens of

bunker A bunker is a defensive military fortification designed to protect people and valued materials from falling bombs, artillery, or other attacks. Bunkers are almost always underground, in contrast to blockhouses which are mostly above ground. T ...

s built along the three main trench systems surrounding the hill, with fortified gun emplacements covering each trench. The living quarters for the Jordanian defenders of the hill were in a large underground bunker. At the time of the

, the post was defended by a reinforced Jordanian company of 150 soldiers of the El-Hussein regiment (number 2).

The battle

A decision was taken by the Israeli Jerusalem Command, under General Uzi Narkis, to forgo an aerial attack on the hill due to its proximity to civilian areas. Instead an artillery barrage was to be focused on the police post, followed by a ground attack using an enlarged paratroop company. The size of the Israeli assault force was based on incorrect intelligence, which detailed the hill as being defended by a single platoon. When the ground assault began, the police academy was discovered to be empty of Jordanian troops, as they had taken shelter from the barrage in the bunker system of the hill, thereby enlarging the force defending the hill to one equal in size to the assault force rather than 1/3 of its size, as had been anticipated by Israeli Central Command. The fighting at the police academy and Ammunition Hill began on June 6, 1967, at 2:30 AM. The task of capturing the hill was given to the Israeli 3rd Company of the 66th Battalion, of the 55th Paratroopers Brigade, and during the battle, a force of the 2nd Company joined the fighting. The battle ended at 6:30 AM, although Israeli troops remained in the trenches due to sniper fire from Givat HaMivtar until the Harel Brigade overran that outpost in the afternoon. 36 Israeli soldiers and 71 Jordanians were killed in the fighting. Ten of the soldiers who fought in this battle were given citations by the Israeli Chief of General Staff. The commander of the Paratroopers Brigade was

Mordechai Gur Mordechai "Motta" Gur (; May 6, 1930 – July 16, 1995) was an Israeli politician and the 10th Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces. During the Six-Day War (1967), he commanded the brigade that penetrated the Old City of Jerusalem and b ...

. The commander of the 66th Battalion was .

Memorial site

In 1975, a memorial site and museum were inaugurated on the hill, preserving a part of the old post and opening a museum in the bunker. In addition, 182

olive The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'' ("European olive"), is a species of Subtropics, subtropical evergreen tree in the Family (biology), family Oleaceae. Originating in Anatolia, Asia Minor, it is abundant throughout the Mediterranean ...

trees were planted on the hill, commemorating the 182 Israeli soldiers who died in the battle for Jerusalem during the Six-Day War. In 1987, the site was declared a national memorial site. The main ceremony on

Jerusalem Day Jerusalem Day (, ) is an Public holidays in Israel, Israeli national holiday that commemorates the "reunification" of East Jerusalem (including the Old City (Jerusalem), Old City) with West Jerusalem following the Six-Day War of 1967, which s ...

is held here. In April 2019, Israel honoured Lieutenant General J. F. R. Jacob of the

Indian Army The Indian Army (IA) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the Land warfare, land-based branch and largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Commander-in-Chief, Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head ...

with a commemorative plaque on the Ammunition Hill Wall of Honour. An estimated 200,000 visitors tour the site each year, including 80,000 soldiers. Ammunition Hill is also the main induction center for IDF paratroopers.

In popular culture

The song '' Ammunition Hill (song)'' (Hebrew: גבעת התחמושת ''Givat Hatachmoshet''), by Israeli song writer

Yoram Taharlev Yoram Taharlev (; 24 January 1938 – 6 January 2022) was an Israeli poet, lyricist, and author. He wrote lyrics for hundreds of songs recorded by prominent composers and performers. Biography Yoram Taharlev was born on Kibbutz Yagur to Yaffa ...

is written about the battle.

References

External links