Operation Yoav

Significance

Operation Yoav, conducted from 15–22 October 1948 during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, aimed to sever the connection between Egyptian forces operating along the coast and those holding the Beersheba–Hebron–Jerusalem road. By driving a wedge between these Egyptian positions, the operation sought to isolate and ultimately bring the entire Negev under Israeli control. The operation was commanded by Southern Front commander Yigal Allon and was named in honor of Yitzhak Dubno, a senior Palmach officer who had been killed in an Egyptian air raid on Kibbutz Negba while organizing the defense of kibbutzim in the southern front. The operation represented a significant Israeli effort to consolidate territorial control in the Negev at a critical stage of the war.