In May 1948, after the end of the
mandate and British withdrawal, King Farouk sent the Egyptian army into Palestine.
[29] Nasser served in the 6th Infantry Battalion.[30] During the war, he wrote of the unpreparedness of the army, saying "our soldiers were dashed against fortifications." Nasser was deputy commander of the Egyptian forces that secured the area known as the
Falluja Pocket. By August 1948, his brigade was surrounded by the
Israeli Army and appeals for help from
Jordan's
Arab Legion went unheeded. Nonetheless, Nasser refused to surrender, but negotiations between
Israel and Egypt resulted in the ceding of Falluja to Israel.
[29]
In February 1949,
Nasser was sent as a member of the Egyptian delegation to Rhodes to negotiate a formal ceasefire with Israel, and reportedly considered the terms humiliating.
[31]
Upon returning to Egypt, Nasser was summoned and interrogated by Prime Minister Ibrahim Abdel Hadi who suspected he was forming a secret group of dissenting officers, an allegation which he "convincingly" had denied.
[31] After 1949, this group adopted the name "
Association of Free Officers" and "talked of... freedom and the restoration of their country’s dignity.