Battle of Hatikvah Neighborhood

On the evening of December 8, 1947, about four-hundred well-trained Palestinians led by Hasan Salama attacked Hatikva a dense, working-class Temani neighborhood, and were repelled by 100 Jewish fighters, including elements of the recently formed Haganah Givati Brigade.

The neighborhood's civilian inhabitants, primarily old Yemenite Jews, responded quickly by rushing into the city's theaters and restaurants and raising the alert.

The Arab attack was launched from Salameh, a village near Jaffa, which had also sent 150 gunmen to attack Kibbutz Ef'al days earlier on 4 December and which was believed to be Hasan Salama's base for the Army of the Holy War.

'The Battle of Hatikvah' was the first military battle of the 1947-48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine. On the night of December 8, 1947, 400 Arab Nationalist fighters commanded by Hasan Salama attacked the Hatikvah and Beit Yaakov neighborhoods. The attack was repulsed with heavy Arab losses.