The Battle on Ein Hod May 1948

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Ein Hod has seven water fountains that have been running year round since
the beginning of human history. Our region has findings that go back 80,000 years in mankind.
The first to build the village where the Crusaders 600 years ago.
At 16th century, a Turkish family (Abu legha) from Kurdistan occupied the village until mid 19th century.

A deserted village that became a picturesque Artists' Village EIN HOD

The Battle on Ein Hod May 1948

Naftali Blumenthal's testimony dated 30.05.09.
Mr. Blumenthal was the commander in the IDF, Knesset member and CEO of Coor. Today, with important roles in various companies in Israel.
We met in Ein Hod, I conducted a tour for him and his family, on his 87' birthday.
http://ein-hod.info/visitors_to_einhod/israelis/naftali/index.html

"In early 1948 I was among the commanders who established a base for training in the Caramel forests , in an abandoned building of Sheikh Damon, Damon Prison today.
The camp was formed to execute various operations.
One was to stop shooting aimed at cars passing at Route 4. It was clear that the shooting was carried out east of the road, from the hills above. But it was not known exactly where the shooting came from.
In May 1948 we planned an attack on a village which was placed where Ein Hod is today.
Two groups were assigned. I commanded one group. We located ourselves east of Ein Hod an observation point on a hilltop above the village, where Nir Etzion settlement is located today.
Our role was to stop an attack aimed from the East during the second group attack on Ein Hod directed from west to east starting at Route 4 - Baruch Gross commanded that group, a lawyer today.
We viewed the village - we did not detect signs of residence.
Suddenly, from Southeast, from the mountain across the valley several Arabs fired a few shots accompanied by loud cries.
We turned two machine guns at them, fired several rounds and they fled.
Baruch reported at 15:00 that the village was deserted and it looked like it was deserted for a long time.
As a rule, (I also participated in several operations in Lebanon) we never had orders, or carried out actions of evacuating Arabs from their residence."

Testimony of Baruch Gross given to me 3 years ago.
"We moved toward Ein Hod in the morning, from highway 4 heading east. The village was suspiciously quiet, we feared of a possible ambush.
We crawled from rock to rock until we reached the village in the afternoon.
There we found a blue-eyed man with his donkey. He fried a pigeon's egg omelet on a British kerosene cooker (Primus).
We tried to converse with him but he was afraid to talk. A search was carried out in the village for residence, we did not find any sign, not even animals droppings.
At about 15:00 I reported that the village seems to be deserted for a long time."

Dan Ben-Arye
Artist, Ein Hod Tour Guide, Webmaster of www.ein-hod.info