Battle of Mughar Ridge

The Battle of Mughar Ridge (officially known by the British as the Action of El Mughar), took place on 13 November 1917 during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of the First World War. Fighting occurred over an extensive area north of the Gaza–Beersheba line and west of the road from Beersheba to Jerusalem via Hebron.

Strong Ottoman Army positions from Gaza to the foothills of the Judean Hills had successfully held out against British Empire forces for a week after the Ottoman army was defeated at Beersheba. But the next day; 8 November the main Ottoman base at Sheria was captured after two days' fighting and a British Yeomanry cavalry charge at Huj captured guns; Ottoman units along the whole line were in retreat.

The Egyptian Expeditionary Force attacked the Ottoman Eighth Army on an extended front from the Judean foothills across the Mediterranean coastal plain from 10 to 14 November. Beginning on 10 November in the south at Summeil an Ottoman counter-attack was eventually blocked by mounted units while on 13 November in the centre a cavalry charge assisted by infantry captured two fortified villages and on 14 November, to the north at Ayun Kara an Ottoman rearguard position was successfully attacked by mounted units. Junction Station (also known as Wadi es Sara) was captured and the Ottoman railway link with Jerusalem was cut. As a result of this victory the Ottoman Eighth Army withdrew behind the Nahr el Auja and their Seventh Army withdrew into the Judean Hills toward Jerusalem.