Six-Day War

==== Israeli invasion ====
{{Further|Battle of Ammunition Hill}}
[[File:Ammunition Hill Museum Exhibits P1010039.JPG|thumb|upright|Silhouette of Israeli paratroops advancing on Ammunition Hill.]]
During the late afternoon of 5 June, the Israelis launched an offensive to encircle Jerusalem, which lasted into the following day. During the night, they were supported by intense tank, artillery and mortar fire to soften up Jordanian positions. Searchlights placed atop the Labor Federation building, then the tallest in Israeli Jerusalem, exposed and blinded the Jordanians. The Jerusalem Brigade moved south of Jerusalem, while the mechanized [[Harel Brigade]] and [[55th Paratroopers Brigade]] under [[Mordechai Gur]] encircled it from the north.{{Sfnp|Oren|2002|p=222}}

A combined force of tanks and paratroopers crossed [[No mans land#Israel–Jordan|no-man's land]] near the [[Mandelbaum Gate]]. Gur's 66th paratroop battalion approached the fortified Police Academy. The Israelis used [[Bangalore torpedo]]es to blast their way through [[barbed wire]] leading up to the position while exposed and under heavy fire. With the aid of two tanks borrowed from the Jerusalem Brigade, they captured the Police Academy. After receiving reinforcements, they moved up to attack [[Battle of Ammunition Hill|Ammunition Hill]].{{Sfnp|Oren|2002|p=222}}<ref name="Jordanian Front">{{Cite web|url=https://www.sixdaywar.org/war/the-jordanian-front/|title=The Jordanian Front}}</ref>

The Jordanian defenders, who were heavily dug-in, fiercely resisted the attack. All of the Israeli officers except for two company commanders were killed, and the fighting was mostly led by individual soldiers. The fighting was conducted at [[Close-quarters combat|close quarters]] in trenches and bunkers and was often hand-to-hand. The Israelis captured the position after four hours of heavy fighting. During the battle, 36 Israeli and 71 Jordanian soldiers were killed.{{Sfnp|Oren|2002|p=222}}<ref name="Jordanian Front" /> Even after the fighting on Ammunition Hill had ended, Israeli soldiers were forced to remain in the trenches due to Jordanian sniper fire from [[Givat HaMivtar]] until the [[Harel Brigade]] overran that outpost in the afternoon.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.jewishtoronto.com/page.aspx?id=65548|title=Memories from Ammunition Hill|date=2 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140102192104/http://www.jewishtoronto.com/page.aspx?id=65548|archive-date=2 January 2014}}</ref>

The 66th battalion subsequently drove east, and linked up with the Israeli enclave on [[Mount Scopus]] and its [[Hebrew University of Jerusalem|Hebrew University]] campus. Gur's other battalions, the 71st and 28th captured the other Jordanian positions around the [[American Colony, Jerusalem|American Colony]], despite being short on men and equipment and having come under a Jordanian mortar bombardment while waiting for the signal to advance.{{Sfnp|Oren|2002|p=222}}<ref name="Jordanian Front" />

At the same time, the IDF's 4th Brigade attacked the fortress at [[Latrun]], which the Jordanians had abandoned due to heavy Israeli tank fire. The mechanized [[Harel Brigade]] attacked [[Har Adar]], but seven tanks were knocked out by mines, forcing the infantry to mount an assault without armoured cover. The Israeli soldiers advanced under heavy fire, jumping between rocks to avoid mines and the fighting was conducted at close quarters with knives and bayonets.{{cn|date=June 2022}}

The Jordanians fell back after a battle that left two Israeli and eight Jordanian soldiers dead, and Israeli forces advanced through [[Beth-Horon|Beit Horon]] towards [[Ramallah]], taking four fortified villages along the way. By the evening, the brigade arrived in Ramallah. Meanwhile, the 163rd Infantry Battalion secured [[Abu Tor]] following a fierce battle, severing the Old City from Bethlehem and Hebron.{{cn|date=June 2022}}

Meanwhile, 600 Egyptian commandos stationed in the West Bank moved to attack Israeli airfields. Led by Jordanian intelligence scouts, they crossed the border and began infiltrating through Israeli settlements towards [[Ramla]] and [[Hatzor]]. They were soon detected and sought shelter in nearby fields, which the Israelis set on fire. Some 450 commandos were killed, and the remainder escaped to Jordan.{{Sfnp|Oren|2002|p=203}}

From the American Colony, the [[paratroopers]] moved towards the Old City. Their plan was to approach it via the lightly defended Salah al-Din Street. However, they made a wrong turn onto the heavily defended Nablus Road. The Israelis ran into fierce resistance. Their tanks fired at point-blank range down the street, while the paratroopers mounted repeated charges. Despite repelling repeated Israeli charges, the Jordanians gradually gave way to Israeli firepower and momentum. The Israelis suffered some 30 casualties – half the original force – while the Jordanians lost 45 dead and 142 wounded.{{Sfnp|Oren|2002|pp=222–223}}

Meanwhile, the Israeli 71st Battalion breached barbed wire and minefields and emerged near Wadi Joz, near the base of Mount Scopus, from where the Old City could be cut off from Jericho and East Jerusalem from Ramallah. Israeli artillery targeted the one remaining route from Jerusalem to the West Bank, and shellfire deterred the Jordanians from counterattacking from their positions at Augusta-Victoria. An Israeli detachment then captured the [[Rockefeller Museum]] after a brief skirmish.{{Sfnp|Oren|2002|pp=222–223}}

Afterwards, the Israelis broke through to the Jerusalem-Ramallah road. At Tel al-Ful, the Harel Brigade fought a running battle with up to thirty Jordanian tanks. The Jordanians stalled the advance and destroyed a number of half-tracks, but the Israelis launched air attacks and exploited the vulnerability of the external fuel tanks mounted on the Jordanian tanks. The Jordanians lost half their tanks, and retreated towards [[Jericho]]. Joining up with the 4th Brigade, the Israelis then descended through [[Shuafat]] and the site of what is now [[French Hill (neighborhood)|French Hill]], through Jordanian defences at Mivtar, emerging at Ammunition Hill.{{Sfnp|Oren|2002|p=224}}

[[File:Ammunition Hill Museum Exhibits P1010035.JPG|thumb|An Israeli airstrike near the Augusta-Victoria Hospital]]
With Jordanian defences in Jerusalem crumbling, elements of the Jordanian 60th Brigade and an infantry battalion were sent from Jericho to reinforce Jerusalem. Its original orders were to repel the Israelis from the Latrun corridor, but due to the worsening situation in Jerusalem, the brigade was ordered to proceed to Jerusalem's Arab suburbs and attack [[Mount Scopus]]. Parallel to the brigade were infantrymen from the Imam Ali Brigade, who were approaching [[Al-Issawiya|Issawiya]]. The brigades were spotted by Israeli aircraft and decimated by rocket and cannon fire. Other Jordanian attempts to reinforce Jerusalem were beaten back, either by armoured ambushes or airstrikes.{{cn|date=June 2022}}

Fearing damage to holy sites and the prospect of having to fight in built-up areas, Dayan ordered his troops not to enter the Old City.{{Sfnp|Shlaim|2007|p=244}} He also feared that Israel would be subjected to a fierce international backlash and the outrage of Christians worldwide if it forced its way into the Old City. Privately, he told [[David Ben-Gurion]] that he was also concerned over the prospect of Israel capturing Jerusalem's holy sites, only to be forced to give them up under the threat of international sanctions.{{cn|date=June 2022}}