An early pilot · A community project
QADIYA is an independent, noncommercial community project: an archive of Palestine’s history, built for the cause and open to everyone.
This is an early pilot. Its records were gathered with AI help from cited sources and are still being checked, so don’t rely on them yet, and tell us if something is wrong.
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معركة الكرامة
Exact day21 March 1968
al-Karama
On 21 March 1968 Palestinian fedayeen and the Jordanian army met a major Israeli incursion at al-Karama, in the Jordan Valley. The Israeli force took unexpectedly heavy losses, and thousands of young Palestinians joined the resistance afterwards.
Linked context in the legacy record
The battle was fought on 21 March 1968 in and around al-Karama, a small Jordanian town in the Jordan Valley north of the Dead Sea. Some two hundred fighters of Fatah and other groups, with Jordanian army troops, artillery and tanks, stood against the Israeli incursion. About half of the Palestinian fighters in the town and its refugee camp died; the Israelis, withdrawing late in the day, had lost 28 killed and 69 wounded, and four tanks and four other heavy vehicles.
Link to this chapterPalQuest · Institute for Palestine Studies · section: Highlight text (Michael Fischbach)
Editorial paraphrase · enAbout 200 fedayeen with Jordanian forces faced the incursion; half the Palestinian fighters died; the Israelis lost 28 killed, 69 wounded, 4 tanks and 4 heavy vehicles.
Link to this citationThe fighters’ prestige rose at once: thousands of young men volunteered to join the Palestinian resistance, and in July 1968 the Palestine National Council gave over a third of its seats to Fatah’s representatives.
Link to this chapterPalQuest · Institute for Palestine Studies · section: Highlight text (Michael Fischbach)
Editorial paraphrase · enThousands volunteered; in July 1968 the PNC gave over a third of its seats to Fatah.
Link to this citationSources & evidence
Contextual sources are further reading. Precise supporting passages appear alongside the chapters.
article · PalQuest · Institute for Palestine Studies
Overview by Michael Fischbach, Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question (Institute for Palestine Studies).
Reference metadata and an original summary only. No permission to copy or host the source’s text, photographs, audio or video is asserted.
photograph · Wikimedia Commons
The photograph shown with this event: Near al-Karama the day after the battle, 22 March 1968.
Public domain in Jordan as a photograph published more than twenty-five years ago (Wikimedia Commons: PD-Jordan).
21 March 1968 · day
03-21 · occurrence
Anniversary of the documented date.
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No reviewed connections have been published here yet. The record remains available while its wider context is researched.