Indeed, that was the problem. The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, UN General Assembly Resolution 181, adopted on November 29, 1947, two months later, placed Gush Etzion in the area assigned to the Arab Palestinian state. The Etzion bloc kibbutzim  had to be supplied from Jerusalem, through hostile Arab territory. They were under constant and increasing attacks by Arab irregulars, later joined by the British officered and supplied Arab Legion. Convoys were ambushed regularly. Two of the largest ambushes were described by Zipporah in letters to her parents. The first one occurred in January of 1948. 38 Haganah (underground defense forces) fighters set out on foot from Hartuv, a small town near Jerusalem, at 11 PM on January 15, commanded by Danny Mas.  Three were sent back because of injuries. They had been late in assembling, and the delay proved fatal. The fate of the remaining 35 was reconstructed from British and Arab reports. The six hours of night did not suffice. About an hour before their destination it became light. They were detected by an Arab shepherd or women not far from Tzurif. They did not harm the Arab civilians, who hurried to sound the alarm, and a large group of armed Arabs gathered to block their way. The battle lasted the entire day. The last defender was apparently killed at about 4:30 PM on January 16. The British in the nearby police station did not interfere until the battle was over.

The Arab attackers mutilated the bodies of the defenders according to British soldiers who witnessed the aftermath of the attack. A soldier who took pictures of mutilated bodies left his roll of film to be developed in Jerusalem and never came back for it, but word of the atrocities had leaked out to the horrified Jewish public. Several decades later the negatives were discovered, but it was decided not to publish the atrocities.  The 35 fallen heroes are remembered as "Ha Lamed Heh" (Hebrew letter equivalent of 35) and a monument was erected to their memory. A later motorized convoy was ambushed at Nebi Daniel (see Nebi Daniel Convoy). Zipporah described that tragedy in a later letter (see Palestine Siege: Jerusalem's Desperate Hours).

A few months later, in May of 1948, the settlements of Gush Etzion were destroyed by the British-officered Arab Legion, aided by Palestinian Arab irregulars, in an orgy of massacre and ethnic cleansing. The inhabitants and defenders were massacred or expelled, and the settlements were looted even before the battle had finished. (see Gush Etzion Remembered - The Kfar Etzion Massacre).