Givati Battalion 53 Auxiliary Company November 1947-beginning 1949

Battalion 53 in the Givati ​​Brigade, the third battalion established in the 5th Brigade – Givati. Established on the basis of the 3rd Battalion of the Haganah, it was composed of the “Dawn” company from the Tel Aviv Suburbs Battalion and the “Nachshonim” companies of the British Army liberated at the beginning of the War of Independence in late November 1947. Before Givati ​​was evacuated from Tel Aviv, their activities focused on maintaining the central front opposite Jaffa, retaliatory operations against Selma (Kfar Shalem) and Yazoor, and securing Jewish transportation. Until February 1948, its men defended Tel Aviv. Then the battalion launched offensive operations to paralyze Arab transportation in the Yavne-Isdod area, broke through the road to Gath and Gal’on, and destroyed Salvation Army forces in the Gal’on area. It participated in operations Hasid, Chametz, and Barak, in which it blew up the Ad Halom Bridge. ; and in Operation Baby to evacuate the children of Nitzanim. The battalion’s companies were deployed to points in the southern sector, in kibbutzim and moshavim: Negba, Nitzanim, Gat, Gal’on, Kedma, Be’er Tuvia and Kfar Warburg. From May 1948 until the end of the war, the forces stopped the Egyptian divisions from moving north towards Tel Aviv. After the establishment of the IDF, the battalion participated in Operation Yoav. The battalion’s commanders were Yitzhak Pundak, later Major General Nachman Nir. Among other things, the forces captured Kfar Ivdis and Givat Julis, on which the site is located. The memorial site commemorates 146 fallen soldiers, battalion fighters and their comrades-in-arms from the localities who fell in the War of Independence. In early 1949, the battalion moved to Brigade 17 (a temporary organizational framework of the IDF in early 1949, disbanded in 1950)