Soldiers leap from planes and parachutes plummet through the air as IDF men and women undergo intensive parachute training in this newsreel from 1957.
According to the announcer, “The idea arose out of the Sinai Campaign, when Israeli paratroops landed 200 miles behind the Egyptian lines and disorganized most of their communications.”
The IDF Paratroopers Brigade has existed since 1951.
After the Mitla Pass Jump triumph during the Sinai Campaign, the brigade went on to achieve many more military successes for Israel — including liberating the Old City of Jerusalem and the Western Wall during the Six Days’ War.
(The Associated Press and Movietone News recently released their vast video archives on YouTube, allowing the public to freely access a million minutes worth of historical news clips dating back to 1895 — including many iconic scenes from Israel’s history featured in this Times of Israel series.)
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Discover Israel's most beloved poet
She died more than four decades ago, but Leah Goldberg remains a magnetic and enigmatic figure: Israel’s most beloved poet, a powerful woman who lived with her mother and never married, who reinvented herself from the ashes of World War I through her magical writing.
You can screen 'The Five Houses of Leah Goldberg' June 4-11. Join The Times of Israel Community today to support our work and watch this and other outstanding documentary films in our DocuNation series.
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