The Battle of Ammunition Hill was one of the battles fought by the Jordanian army against Israel. It lasted from two in the morning until seven in the morning on June 6, 1967, in which 97 Jordanian soldiers were martyred.
Some have described it as “the bloodiest battle” in the history of the Arab-Israeli wars ever, to the point that the losses of one of the companies in the Jordanian army were 90% between martyrs and wounded.
In this battle, 97 out of 101 Jordanian soldiers were martyred within the “Second Hussein” Battalion, whose name was later changed to become the “Mother of the Martyrs” Brigade.
reason of calling
The local name for the battle site is “Al-Mudawara,” but it was called “Ammunition Hill” because it was used as an ammunition depot belonging to the police academy that was built by the British Mandate and remained under Jordanian control from the time it was captured in 1948 until the moment of the battle.
Another story says that the reason for calling the battle by this name is the tons of ammunition that the Israeli army used on land and from the air to seize this strategic hill, which made it easier for it to complete the occupation of the eastern part of Jerusalem after occupying the western part of it in the Nakba of 1948.
Location of Al Dhakhira Hill
Ammunition Hill is located in the Sheikh Jarrah area in East Jerusalem, within the series of vital highlands that control the road between Ramallah and Jerusalem. The site was built in 1930 during the British Mandate of Palestine, and was used to store ammunition for the Police Academy. It is a fortified site that contains trenches, shelters, and places Prepared to park artillery vehicles.
The Arab Army took control of the hill during the 1948 War, severing the link between Mount Scopus and West Jerusalem. Following the 1949 Armistice, parts of Mount Scopus remained an internal Israeli enclave in territory under the control of the Jordanian Army, with the army denied access to Hadassah Hospital and the Hebrew University campus in Jerusalem is on top of the hill.
The shelters were built along the three main trench systems surrounding the hill, with fortified artillery covering each trench. The living quarters of the hill’s Jordanian defenders were in a large underground bunker. During the 1967 War, the site was defended by an armed Jordanian battalion of 150 soldiers from the Hussein Regiment.
Causes of the battle
Ammunition Hill was located in a geographically disturbed area when the Great War broke out in 1967, which made it the scene of this pivotal battle between the Jordanian and Israeli forces.
According to the decision to partition Palestine, the Jerusalem area was supposed to be subject to international sovereignty, but the 1948 war led to a different reality that began the division of the city, so that its entire west became under Israeli control, and most of its east was under Jordanian control.
Thus, Mount Scopus was separated from the rest of the part under Israeli control in the west, and from here it was necessary to restore the road to the mountain in the 1967 war by first occupying Ammunition Hill and Givat HaMivtar.
The formation of the two armies
The Israeli force moved to occupy Ammunition Hill in 25 buses, each carrying at least 34 fighters, meaning that the occupation army mobilized for a direct attack on the hill site approximately 900 soldiers from the paratroopers, which is the unit most experienced in combat and the best trained, in addition to artillery and missile support forces. The launchers were deployed around the hill to confront 100 Jordanian soldiers from the Second Hussein Battalion.
The Israeli buses were crowded with soldiers and loaded with large quantities of combat equipment, ammunition, and grenades for individuals. One of them even carried a missile launcher unit equipped with six launchers.
The occupation allocated 7 tanks to support the “66” Paratroopers Battalion, which was the battalion that was assigned to occupy Ammunition Hill, in addition to 8 anti-tank guns allocated to bomb the positions and trenches of the Jordanian army on the hill, and 14 tanks of AMX type was deployed in the vicinity of the hill to intensify the bombing.
As for the Jordanian army, it used old American-made semi-automatic “carbine” rifles that were loaded one bullet after each use, unlike the modern “Uzi” automatic machine guns that the Israeli soldiers were armed with, each of whom had 16 bullet magazines.
Battle day
The Battle of Ammunition Hill was characterized by bloodiness and direct confrontation between Jordanian and Israeli soldiers. The paratroopers began storming the police academy at dawn on June 6, 1967, at 2:30 in the morning, and after controlling it, they attacked the Jordanian fort south of the academy.
From the first moment, a fierce exchange of fire began between the two sides. The Jordanian fort was surrounded by barbed wire and minefields. It was also surrounded on three sides by deep-dug channels for soldiers to fire from within without exposing their bodies to danger, in addition to tunnels and simple underground facilities prepared for safe movement between parts of the country. The fort and its connection to the academy area.
The task of seizing the hill was entrusted to the 3rd Company of the 66th Battalion of the Parachute Brigade Reserve Force (55th Brigade), and during the battle a force from the 2nd Battalion joined.
The battle ended at 6:30 a.m. although Israeli forces remained in the trenches due to sniper fire from the Givat Hamivtar area until Harel’s Brigade overran the position in the afternoon.
After additional elements joined in to help, the Israelis were able to advance to a sufficient area so that their positions allowed them to blow up the hideouts of Jordanian fighters, which decided the outcome of the battle. Thus, the occupation took complete control of Ammunition Hill after eliminating almost the entire Jordanian company, and killing 34 Israeli soldiers.
The Israeli Minister of Defense at the time, Moshe Dayan, was quoted as saying that he described the Battle of Ammunition Hill as “one of the fiercest battles” fought by the best Israeli forces against the Jordanian army.
Memorial
To commemorate the battle, Israel opened an official site on Ammunition Hill, where it built a memorial and established a museum.
Israel organizes visits to this site to view the bunkers, canals and trenches where the battle took place, and displays a video of the military confrontation between the two sides.