Battle of Karameh

The Battle of Karameh (Arabic: معركة الكرامة) was a 15-hour military engagement between Israel and the combined forces of Jordan and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in the Jordanian border town of Karameh during the War of Attrition on 21 March 1968. It was planned by Israel as one of two concurrent raids on PLO camps, one in Karameh along the Jordan River and the other in the distant village of Ghor es-Safi south of the Dead Sea.

After Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967, Palestinian fighters, also known as fedayeen, moved to Jordan and stepped up their attacks on Israel and the occupied territories, basing themselves in Karameh. Israel stated that it aimed to destroy fedayeen camps at Karameh, and to capture the leader of the PLO Yasser Arafat as reprisal. Israel also wanted to punish Jordan for its perceived support to the fedayeen. A large Israeli force launched an attack on the town on the dawn of 21 March, supported by fighter jets. Israel assumed the Jordanian Army would choose to not get involved in the battle, but the latter deployed heavy artillery fire, while the Palestinian irregulars engaged in guerrilla warfare. The Israelis withdrew, or were repulsed, after a day-long battle.

Both sides declared victory. On a tactical level, Israel managed to destroy most of the Karameh camp and take around a hundred PLO fighters as prisoners. On a political level, Jordan and the PLO inflicted relatively high casualties on the Israelis, who left behind three dead soldiers in Karameh along with several damaged Israeli vehicles and tanks, which were later paraded in Amman by the Jordanian Army. The engagement also marked the first known deployment of suicide bombers by Palestinian fighters, and the issuance of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 248, which unanimously condemned Israel for violating the cease-fire line and its disproportionate use of force.

The battle gained wide acclaim and recognition in the Arab world, and the following period witnessed an upsurge of support from Arab countries to the fedayeen in Jordan. The Palestinians had limited success in inflicting Israeli casualties, but King Hussein allowed them to take credit, to the point of proclaiming "we are all fedayeen". As the PLO's strength began to grow in the aftermath, the fedayeen began to speak openly of overthrowing the Hashemite monarchy, and the ensuing tensions with the Jordanian authorities eventually precipitated in their expulsion to Lebanon in 1971, marking the end of the Black September conflict.