On 30 December 1947, members of the Irgun, a Jewish underground militia, threw bombs into a crowd of Arabs outside the gates of the Consolidated Refineries in Haifa, killing six and injuring 42.

Prior to the establishment of the state of Israel the leader of the Yeshuv, David Ben-Gurion, made several attempts to reorganise the main underground militia, the Haganah, and its elite force, the Palmach.

The evolution from several underground militias to a state army is not simple.

A mainly socialist underground Jewish militia, Haganah ("Defense"), was established to defend outlying Jewish settlements.

The main underground Jewish militia, the Haganah, formed an alliance called the Jewish Resistance Movement with the Etzel and Stern Gang to fight the British.

He left school at 14, and helped to make weaponry for a Jewish underground militia before Israel's independence in 1948.

There were also several thousand men and women who had served in the British Army in World War II who did not serve in any of the underground militias but would provide valuable military experience during the war.

To stop the deportation, the Haganah, the Jewish underground militia in Palestine, exploded a bomb in the ship's hold on November 25.

An adventure drama about an 18th-century South Carolina widowed dad who helps build an underground militia.

The attacks on the Jewish population by Arabs had three lasting effects: First, they led to the formation and development of Jewish underground militias, primarily the Haganah, which were to prove decisive in 1948.