Yehiam fortress – Mad-in-Israel

Hi,
Me and some of friends in the faculty went to hike in Yehiam fortress (known as Khirbat Jiddin). The Crusader castle, (built by the Teutonic Order in 1220 as Judin) was destroyed by the Mamluk sultan Baibars about 50 years later. It was Rebuilt by Arab ruler of Zahir al-Umar in 1760s as castle of Jiddin and destroyed 15 years later by the Ottoman ruler Jazzar Pasha and left in its ruins as Khirbat Jiddin (the ruins of Jiddin).

In November 26th 1946 Kibbutz Yehiam was founded in this fortress. The name was given to the settlement after Yehiam Weitz, who was the son of Jewish Agency official Joseph Weitz. Yehiam was killed in the Night of the Bridges (June 16th 1946) some 7km away near the Arab village of al-Kabri.

In the war of Independence the isolated Kibbutz and the fortress held against Arab attacks of Arab Liberation Army. A convoy that was sent to help the defenders was ambushed and ended with death of 47 Haganah personnel. Finally in Operation Dekel, IDF forces had conquered the fortress and removed the threat from the Kibbutz.

Take Care
Gad

Nature and Parks Authority sign in the entrance to Yehiam fortress

Paving the road to the fortress, 1947 (Source: Wikipedia)

A Bedouin of the al-Zeidan tribe

The entrance to the fortress

This is my sentry at the stronghold of Judin, on the heights of the Gallile - Yehiam

This is my sentry at the stronghold of Judin, on the heights of the Gallile

The views from the fortress

Inside the fortress

Bathhouse – It is a doubtful pleasure to sit and sweat on the hard stone bench with a towel wrapped around your hips.

A view over the Kibbutz

The knights halls

Yehiam on day it was founded, temporary kitchen inside the fortress hall (Source: Wikipedia)

The mortar location – Yehiam 3″ mortar was located here and added a device to allow to aim it. All three personal was injured in an attack

The water holes – carrying the water and storage it in the isolated location was one of the hard problems the people of Kibbutz had to deal with and there was a consistent shortage in water

Injury location – the injured was evacuated to this point during the attacks

Command and communication post – from this post the battles were commanded. after the communication lines were cut, and the communication was done through pipes

Communication – There several communication between Kibbutz Yehiam, Nahariya and Kiryat Haim – mail pigeons, Heliographs, flashlight signal and radio.

Fighting post – the enemy attack was stopped 50 meter from here. One personal was killed and several more injured

Rock rabbit

Fighting post – the post on the fortress tower was hit and a hard injured personal was evacuated from it under fire. after the hit, the lower post were dig that allow the fighters to return fire from slits between the bags

Guarding and watch post - this post watched over the valley was hit from an enemy mortar shell. 3 of Yehiam fighters were killed and on fighter-nurse was hit.

Guarding and watch post – this post watched over the valley was hit from an enemy mortar shell. 3 of Yehiam fighters were killed and on fighter-nurse was hit.