on May 6, 1948, and the 13th captured Beit She'an on May 12. After these operations, responsibility over the northeastern part of the brigade's sector (the Tel Hai area, 11th Battalion), was handed over to the Oded Brigade and other forces. In December 1948, the 14th and 15th battalions were merged into the Mechanized Attack Battalion. The first Golani action following the Arab intervention in the 1948 war was the defense of the kibbutzim Degania Alef and Bet from the Syrian Army in the Battles of the Kinarot Valley. Units from the Barak Battalion, with Yiftach (Palmach) and Guard Corps reinforcements, successfully fended off a Syrian attack. The brigade was also successful at repelling Iraqi forces at the Battle of Gesher to the south. After the Jordan Valley battles died out, Golani went on the offensive, attacking a number of Arab villages in its sector, and finally mounting an offensive on Jenin together with the Carmeli Brigade on June 2, 1948. The attack eventually succeeded, but Jenin was retaken by the Iraqi Army shortly after. During the Battles of the Ten Days between the first and second truces of the war (July 8–18, 1948), Golani managed to repel the Arab Liberation Army attack on Sejera from Lubya, and helped capture Nazareth and eventually Lubya in Operation Dekel. Golani also participated in Operation Hiram in October 1948, where at first it staged diversionary attacks from the south, and afterwards went on to capture Eilabun, Mughar, Rameh and other villages in the ALA First Yarmouk Battalion's zone. In December 1948, the brigade was largely transferred to the south in preparation for Operation Horev. Golani fought the Egyptians in the Gaza Strip, in Operation Assaf, the Battle of Hill 86 and later battles around Rafah. In March 1949, the brigade was tasked with capturing Umm Rashrash (today Eilat) with the 7th Armored Brigade. Golani advanced through the Arabah region in the east and arrived at the location two hours after the 7th. This was the last operation of the war. Border Raids and Suez Crisis After the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the Golani Brigade participated in a number of reprisal raids in the first part of the 1950s. In 1951, a Syrian patrol entered the demilitarized zone near Tel Mutilla, and was attacked by reservist IDF troops. Golani reinforced a reserve battalion and entered a battle that lasted five days, costing the brigade 40