The 1948 Arab-Israeli War, referred to as the "War of Independence" or as the "War of Liberation" by Israelis, is the first in a series of armed conflicts fought between Israel and its Arab neighbors in the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict. For Palestinians, the war marked the beginning of the events they refer to as "The Catastrophe" ("al Nakba", ). After the United Nations proposed to partition the territory of the British Mandate of Palestine into two states, Jewish and Arab, the Arabs refused to accept it and the armies of Egypt, Syria, Transjordan, Lebanon and Iraq, supported by others, invaded the newly established State of Israel which they intended to destroy.http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/1948_War.html 1948 War As a result, the region was divided between Israel, Egypt and Transjordan.