Fourth Army. It started with an Ottoman attempt at raiding the Suez Canal in and ended with the Armistice of Mudros in , leading to the cession of Ottoman Syria. Fighting began in January , when a German-led Ottoman force invaded the Sinai Peninsula , then occupied by the British as part of a Protectorate of Egypt , to unsuccessfully raid the Suez Canal.
The Ottoman defences were captured by 8 November, and the pursuit began. The advance stalled until Allenby's force resumed the offensive during the manoeuvre warfare of the Battle of Megiddo in September. The successful infantry battles at Tulkarm and Tabsor created gaps in the Ottoman front line, allowing the pursuing Desert Mounted Corps to encircle the infantry fighting in the Judean Hills and fight the Battle of Nazareth and Battle of Samakh , capturing Afulah, Beisan , Jenin and Tiberias.
In the process the EEF destroyed three Ottoman armies during the Battle of Sharon , the Battle of Nablus and the Third Transjordan attack , capturing thousands of prisoners and large quantities of equipment. Damascus and Aleppo were captured during the subsequent pursuit, before the Ottoman Empire agreed to the Armistice of Mudros on 30 October , ending the Sinai and Palestine campaign.
The British Mandate of Palestine and the Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon were created to administer the captured territories. The campaign was generally not well known or understood during the war. In Britain, the public thought of it as a minor operation, a waste of precious resources which would be better spent on the Western Front, while the peoples of India were more interested in the Mesopotamian campaign and the occupation of Baghdad.
The long-lasting effect of this campaign was the Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire , when France won the mandate for Syria and Lebanon , while the British Empire won the mandates for Mesopotamia and Palestine. Since , Egypt had been a de facto independent state under the Muhammad Ali Dynasty , though it remained de jure part of the Ottoman Empire.
