Historical background

: (the Haganah symbol was taken from one of the signs on the site)
The largest and most institutionalized military organization among the three undergrounds. The Haganah was established in 1920 to provide protection against Israeli Arab attacks on the Jewish settlement . During World War II WWII, the organization cooperated with the British against the threat of a Nazi invasion of Israel, but at the end of the war, the organization directed its efforts against the British rule in the Land of Israel. The organization operated until the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, and formed the basis for the establishment of the IDF after the establishment of the state.

Defense of the Hebrew settlement
The main activity of the "Hagana" organization in the 20s and 30s of the 20th century, centered on the defense of the Jewish settlement, as well as training and building the organization.
The Hagana was greatly assisted during this period by the "Notrim" - the police of the Hebrew settlements within the British police. The monitoring stations were throughout the country, thus in Rishon Lezion , Netanya , Holon , Petah Tikva and many other places.

Training centers
The training centers, called Makalim (learning places), were usually in schools. In these centers, the trainees acquired knowledge in the use of light firearms, fieldcraft, topography, face-to-face combat, first aid, communication, and more.
Some of the training centers, as mentioned, were located mainly in schools: Netzah Yisrael , Tschernihovski , Beit Strauss , Balfour , Tahkamoni , Balfour Gymnasium , Tel Hai , Hosmasa (Holon) , , Geula , Geula (Commercial School) , Ahad Ha’am , Kalischer
At the Tel-Nordau school, the Haganah’s women’s battalion trained, which later became the Chen (Women’s Corps of the IDF)

Weapons production
Starting in the 1930s, the Haganah began to engage in the procurement of weapons as well as their production (including ammunition for purchased weapons).
Yehuda Arazi started the shopping spree in Poland in 1936.
The production of weapons began as early as 1933 at the "Water Institute" in Givatayim , where a workshop was established for the production of hand grenades.
In 1936, part of the production of weapons moved to Tel Aviv, at "Institute A" which operated on the seashore of Tel Aviv inside a leather processing factory, hand grenades were initially produced, and years later the "Sten" submachine gun was also produced there.
Simultaneously with the establishment of Institute A, factories were established for the production of weapons in Naan , in Rehovot Winery , in Rishon Lezion Winery , Haskelberg House in Rehovot And in 1938 "Institute B" was established in Tel Aviv where mortars were produced
In 1942, the base was established for what later became Israel’s military industry. In the port of Tel Aviv (the exhibition grounds) the "HaSnif Institute" was established where submachine gun parts were produced , "Yosef Institute" in Kfar Vitkin , "David Institute" in Gan Haim , "Sela Institute" in Tel Mond .
Other places where weapons were produced were in Tel Yitzhak ("Bamifne" Institute, a chemical plant) , the Reading I power plant (Tel Aviv) In which was also the technical office of Ta’as (military industry) .
The main place where weapons were produced was the "Ayalon Institute" (Rehovot), a factory that after the War of Independence was transferred to the military industry .

A statue made of weapon parts produced at the "Water Institute" is displayed there

Davidka
The Davidka mortar was the crowning glory of the Haganah arms industry. The mortar was developed by David Leibowitz who was a teacher at the agricultural school "Mikve Israel" in whose blacksmith shop the mortar was developed . The first experiments with mortar were done in the sands of Holon . Davidka was used for the first time in the attack on Jaffa in early 1948 . The main success of the Davidka was in the big noise it made. The Davidka that was used by the Defense Forces in the occupation of Katmon, Mount Zion and Camp Allenby in Jerusalem was commemorated in the square named after it

Slicks
The weapon was hidden in Slicks which were hiding places in a variety of places: schools , synagogues , kibbutzim , cemeteries and more.
In Moshav Nahalal was one of the central Slicks of the "Hagana" organization .
For more details, see the extended entry on the subject Slick.

Commanders
The first commander of the Haganah was Yosef Hecht , the "mythological" commander was Eliyahu Golomb , whose house was also the headquarters of the Haganah in the years 1930-1945 .
Among the other commanders we can name Yitzhak Sadeh , Yaakov Dori (the first Chief of Staff of the IDF), Moshe Sneh, and Israel Galili.

Headquarters
The headquarters of the organization of the Haganah was in Beit Eliyahu Golomb in Tel Aviv . Other headquarters were at the Herzliya Gymnasium in Tel Aviv , the national headquarters, on Frishman Street, Tel Aviv , the headquarters of the Tel Aviv Front
From the end of 1947, the Defense Headquarters moved to the "Red House" in Tel Aviv until the declaration of the establishment of the State of Israel in May 1948, when the Haganah Headquarters in Tel Aviv was bombed, the commanders of the Haganah organization moved to Beit Bejerano in Ramat Gan, a place where Ben-Gurion made the fateful decisions for the existence of the state , and the Haganah Chief of Staff moved to the convalescent home "Hachlama" in Ramat Gan, where the swearing-in ceremony of the IDF High Command was held.

Additional headquarters were in the following locations: Jerusalem - the building of the Zionist National Institutions , Kfar Saba - the Khan , Rishon Lezion - Beit Kanner , Nes Ziona - Beit Rishonim , the winery of Rehovot , Petah Tikva - Mafgosh , Jerusalem - City Council for Jerusalem Jews , David Yelin College

Air service
The Air Service was the Defense "Air Force". It was established in 1947, when most of its planes were light planes that belonged to the Aviron company.
The first pilot course took place in Tel Aviv, at the Histadrut activists’ house .
In the years 1947-1948, the air Services headquarters of the Haganah operated in Tel Aviv at the place where Dubnov Garden is today
and then in 1948 in the offices of the Eretz Israel Aviation Club, which was located where the Kriya base is today

Hish
The Hish was the field force of the Haganah, operating between 1939-1948 and, together with the Palmach, constituted the military force of the "Haganah" organization.
The Hish’s base of operations was at the kibbutz seminary in Tel Aviv and from Nachmani Street in Tel Aviv the members of the recruited department set out for retaliatory actions against Arab rioters in Tel Aviv .
In 1948, the Field Corps acted against the Arabs of the Abu-Kabir neighborhood, whose residents obstructed traffic going through them to Jerusalem by throwing stones, and killing the passengers. In this action, 3 Haganah soldiers fell
In the north of the country, the "Lebanese" brigade was established in 1947, which was made up of the Hish battalions that were in the area. The brigade was later split into the "Golani" brigade, which operated in the Kinneret and Jezreel Valley areas, and the "Carmeli" brigade, which operated in the Haifa area

Mahal
Foreign volunteers to Israel, more than 3,000 volunteers who came to Israel mainly to help in the War of Independence. On Mesilat Zion there is a memorial to the soldiers of the military .

HaGid’onim
Gideon was the communication unit of the Haganah, and the radio technicians were called Gideons. The communication was between units in Israel, and between units in the world .
The signaling and broadcasting stations were mainly in high places such as water towers and other towers: Tel Aviv Holon , Givatayim , Kiryat Ono , Hadera , Givat Han
A radio laboratory was in Tel Aviv And in Kibbutz Gvat, a "Sarah" station was established, which was used for straw between the institutions of the settlement and the embassies abroad .

Telam Shamir Boaz
Hagana’s broadcasting station (Voice of Israel), the name is the wireless spelling of the letters TSB, (underground broadcasting station) .

Ha’apala
Hagana actively participated in the reception of illegal immigrants through the Mossad for Aliya B.
In 1946 in Wingate night the Haganah people fought the British government to allow the arrival of the immigration ship Wingate .
A description of the Haganah operations is detailed on the signs in the London Garden in Tel Aviv , ,
You can also find information at the Mitzpe Hayam in Netanya And at the Mitzpe Ha’apalah in Beit Yanai

For more details, see the expanded entry on the topic Aliyah Bet (Ha’apala)

The Women Battalion
Women participated in the Hagana operations from its earliest days. During World War II, women were recruited into the British ATS (Auxiliary Territorial Service). After the war, the women participated in many activities, mainly as nurses, nurses, etc. The women trained in Tel Aviv at the Tel Nordau school . The Haganah Women’s Battalion formed the basis for the establishment of the IDF Women’s Corps.
In the Second World War, the defense companies that dropped behind enemy lines are mostly known. Hannah Szenes and Chaviva Reik who were caught after their parachute drop and executed by the Germans.

Operations
Below are a number of operations in which the Haganah participated (most of them during the War of Independence)
Operation Pitchfork - taking over the center of Jerusalem through the "Etzioni" brigade
The explosion of Beit Abu Jaban - Rishon Lezion by the Givati Brigade (1948)
Operation Hametz - a preparatory operation for the liberation of Jaffa, in which the villages surrounding the city were captured, the Alexandroni, Givati and Kiraiti brigades, April 1948
Operation Danny - occupation of Ramla Lod, Harel Brigade
A raid on the ice factory in Kfar Yazor, which was the Haganah’s most significant operation before it was transferred to the IDF
The battles for Notre Dame in Jerusalem
Operations in Nesher after the massacre of the refineries and the night of the bridges

Palmach
The Palmach (thrust companies) was actually the army of the "Haganah" organization, and after the establishment of the State of Israel it was disbanded and integrated into the IDF.
The Palmach was established in 1941 and was under the command of Yitzhak Sadeh , initially it consisted of two companies, Company A led by Yigal Alon and Company B led by Moshe Dayan.

The first action of the Palmach was in May 1941, in a raid on the fuel facilities on the coast of Tripoli in Lebanon which were under the control of the Nazis. The 23 fighters who sailed ashore perished, and their fate is unknown
The Palmach carried out other operations, but its main activity was in the reception of refugees in the Land of Israel , , as well as in activities related to the blockade imposed by the British on the coast of Israel. In 1945, in Operation "Party", the Palmach men sank a British patrol ship in the port of Jaffa
The Palmach was also involved in the "land immigration", in the 1940s the Palmach fighters led groups of immigrants from Syria and Lebanon and deported them to Israel .

In the War of Independence, the Palmach was the main force that fought. For this purpose, 3 brigades were established that were responsible for different areas of the country: the Yiftach Brigade - Upper and Lower Galilee, the Harel Brigade - Jerusalem, and the Negev Brigade.

During the War of Independence, there were 3 attacks by the Palmach on the Al-Nabi Yusha Police Station (Citadel 28), which was a fortified defense system given by the British to the Arab forces, 28 fighters were killed in the battles and the place is named after them the Citadel 28

One of the battles of the Yaftah Brigade was on the first day of 1948 when they attacked the houses of Balad al-Sheikh, where those responsible for the massacre of the refineries two days earlier stayed .

The Negev Brigade was established at the end of 1947 after a convoy was attacked near Beer Sheva. The headquarters of the brigade was in Kibbutz Tze’elim (the eighth battalion) . The brigade participated in the battles of the War of Independence, including the battle at Yad Mordechai, in which they managed to hold back the Egyptian forces for 6 days, until the kibbutz fell into the hands of the Egyptians .

Harel Palmach Brigade
The division was established in April 1948 and acted in escorting convoys to Jerusalem , the breakthrough to Jerusalem, and in the battles that were in Jerusalem and its surroundings. The brigade included the 4th, 5th Palmach battalions and the 6th ("Jerusalem" battalion) that had been established earlier.
In Kibbutz Kiryat Anavim where the main base of the fighters who defended the road to Jerusalem was, is the brigade monument And in his cemetery lie most of the martyrs of the division

Many battles were fought in the area of Sha’ar HaGai (Bab al-Wad) , a narrow place that could be easily blocked and thereby block the road to Jerusalem.
The brigade participated in the battles for Gush Etzion , and from it came the platoon of the Convoy of 35 made up of the soldiers of the 6th battalion headed by the deputy commander of the battalion - Danny Mass, and went out on January 15-16, 1948 with the aim of helping the defense of Gush Etzion. On the way to the site, the platoon was discovered and all its men were killed
In February 1948, the brigade (the 5th battalion) took part in the ice factory in the village of Yazur, which was controlled by Arab forces that threatened the road to Jerusalem. This action was a milestone in the transition of the "Haganah" forces to the fighting of a regular army .
The brigade participated (the 5th and 6th battalions) escorting the Nabi Daniel convoy, a convoy intended to deliver supplies to the besieged Gush Etzion. During clashes with the convoy crossing, 15 fighters of the brigade , were killed.
In March 1948, a convoy left Huldah to bring supplies to Jerusalem, the convoy was secured by the fighters of the 4th and 5th battalions of the Palmach. The convoy was attacked and during the fighting 22 fighters were killed
In the Nachshon operation in April 1948, in which the Kastel was captured and the road to Jerusalem was temporarily opened, the fifth and sixth battalions participated ,
In April 1948, a large convoy with the leaders of the settlement left for Jerusalem. The end of the convoy was attacked, during the attack 13 of the fighters of the brigade were killed
The brigade participated in Operation "Danny" (as part of the IDF), an operation whose purpose was to occupy the area between Rosh Ha’Ain, Ramla, Lod and Latron

In May 1948, as a result of the brigade’s operations, the construction of Burma Road, the road bypassing the main road to Jerusalem, began
In the same month, the brigade captured Mount Zion in Jerusalem, to help the Jewish quarter of the city