and guide for Ein HaShofet, was ambushed and murdered by residents of Al-Kafrayn. Two residents of Ein HaShofet who accompanied him were also killed in the attack. One of the shooters was caught and executed. In that period the Palmach (an elite force of the Jewish Haganah underground organization) used the trees in the nearby forest as cover for their main training camp and its fighters worked in the kibbutz so not to raise suspicion by the British soldiers. In the fall of 1942, during World War II, Mishmar HaEmek was used as a training camp by the British army. 160 Jewish volunteers, who would later become members of the Palmach, were trained by Royal Engineers in sabotage and wireless operation. Several tons of explosives were hidden in caches in case the area came under German occupation. This program was eventually terminated and orders were issued for the collection of all equipment and explosives to be returned to the British. Battle of Mishmar HaEmek During the 1947–48 civil war, the kibbutz came under full-scale attack by the Arab Liberation Army (ALA) on 4 April 1948. The leader of the ALA, Fawzi al-Qawuqji, planned to seize Mishmar HaEmek to control the route between Jenin and Haifa. The attack began with a barrage from seven artillery pieces supplied by the Syrian army. During the shelling of the kibbutz, houses were destroyed, civilians, defenders, and animals were killed and the prominent school building was heavily damaged. A bomb shelter was later built there. On 6 April 1948, the women and children of the kibbutz were evacuated with the aid of the British to other settlements in the Jezreel Valley and a British-brokered ceasefire began during which the Jewish forces fortified the kibbutz and dug trenches around its perimeter. Although the Arab forces had not entered the kibbutz, Qawuqji reported that the kibbutz was captured and the "conquest of Mishmar HaEmek" was falsely celebrated in Arab newspapers, which also reported heavy casualties among the Jewish forces. The ALA sent terms to the Haganah, saying they would lift the siege of the kibbutz, regroup and move toward Haifa if the Jewish forces would not retaliate against the nearby Arab villages in return. The Jewish forces declined the offer and the Arab offensive resumed on 8 April. In the night between 8–9 April, the Jewish forces launched a counter-attack under the command of Yitzhak Sadeh and