The Battles of Latrun were a series of military engagements between the Israel Defense Forces and the Jordanian Arab Legion on the outskirts of Latrun between 25 May and 18 July 1948, during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Latrun takes its name from the monastery close to the junction of two major highways: Jerusalem to Jaffa/Tel Aviv and Gaza to Ramallah. During the British Mandate it became a Palestine Police base with a Tegart fort. The United Nations Resolution 181 placed this area within the proposed Arab state. In May 1948, it was under the control of the Arab Legion. It commanded the only road linking the Yishuv-controlled area of Jerusalem to Israel, giving Latrun strategic importance in the battle for Jerusalem.
The police fort at Latrun
Jewish convoy making its way to Jerusalem below the Latrun Monastery. 1948.
US Col. Mickey Marcus in 1948, the first modern Israeli general (Aluf)
Yigal Allon, commander of the operations Yoram and Danny. During the 1948 War he also commanded Operation Yiftach and Operation Horev.
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 Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, an independent state, with a final Arabization of its command taking place in 1956, when British senior officers were replaced by Jordanian ones.
The Arab army during the Arab revolt of 1916 against the Ottoman Empire, which formed the nucleus of the Arab Legion
Arab Legion in Iraq during the Anglo-Iraqi War in 1941
Arab Legion commander Abdullah el Tell (far right) with Captain Hikmat Mihyar (far left) pose with Jewish prisoners after the fall of Gush Etzion
Arab Legion artillery shells illuminate Jerusalem in 1948