Battle of Hill 86

Battle context

The Battle of Hill 86 was the opening engagement of Operation Horev and served a deliberate deception function within it. Israeli forces initiated the attack concurrently with a raid on the Arab village of 'Abasan and aerial and naval shelling of the coastal strip. The combined action was designed to mislead Egyptian commanders — including Muhammad Naguib — into believing that the broader Israeli offensive would target the isolation of Egyptian forces in Gaza, rather than revealing the operation's actual objectives. As the first battle of Operation Horev, Hill 86 established the deceptive framework within which subsequent phases of the operation were intended to unfold.