A convoy from Tel Aviv arriving Jerusalem

Arab blocking the only road to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv

On the only road that led to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv the Arabs started attacks on the transportation on their way with supplies, food, water, gasoline, and weapons that were sent to protect and help the city that was under siege. The supply convoys would go in big groups to Jerusalem to bring the supplies, that way they could protect each other and help. Palmach soldiers joined this groups to protect the people. They had to hide their weapons from the British, who would take the weapons away if thay found them. 245 convoys managed to get to Jerusalem with 10,000 tons of supplies. One of the main operations on the way to Jerusalem was “Operation Nachshon” which was lead by Simon Avidan (שמעון אבידן ). It began on the night of April 2, 1948. The name "Operation Nachshon" was derived from the biblical personage Nachshon Ben Aminadav who was the first to jump into the Red Sea when the Jews fled Egypt.
It was the first major Haganah operation and it was the first time that a "brigade force" was employed numbering 1,500 men, a large amount of people for this operation. They were armed with Czech weapons that had been smuggled into the country on April 1st at a hidden airstrip in the south.
Even today, as you make your way up to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, you can see on the roadside, the remains of the armored vehicles that never made it to Jerusalem during the siege of 1948. These reminders show us the bravery and courage of the warriors that went to rescue Jerusalem. When you see those rusting wrecks, you can’t be more proud of your nation, your home, and your people.

BAB EL WAD

Here I pass, standing by the stone.
An asphalt road, rocks and ridges.
Evening comes slowly, a sea-wind blows
Light of a first star, over Beit Ma'hsir.

Bab-el-wad (refrain),
Remember our names forever,
Convoys broke through, on the road to the City.
Our dead lie at the sides of the road
The iron skeleton is as silent as my comrade.

Here tar and lead fumed under the sun,
Here nights passed in fire and knives.
Here sadness and glory live together
With a burnt-out armored car and the name of an unknown.

Bab-el-wad ... (refrain)

And I walk, passing here silently,
And I remember them, one by one.
Here we fought together on cliffs and boulders
Here we were one family.

Bab-el-wad ... (refrain)

A spring day will come, the cyclamens will bloom,
Red of anemone on the mountain and on the slope.
He, who will go on the road we went,
He must not forget us, Bab-el-wad.