Raid on Nekhl

The Raid on Nekhl (February 1917) was the second of three battles by British forces to recapture the Sinai Peninsula during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of World War I. Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) mounted forces travelled into the centre of the Sinai Peninsula to attack and push the last Ottoman Army garrisons back into Palestine.

Nekhl had been a regional centre for British administration until the beginning of the war when Ottoman Empire forces invaded the area. During the Raid on the Suez Canal in February 1915 part of the attacking force had moved through Nekhl.

By February 1917 the Ottoman garrisons in the region were well behind the EEF front line. As the occupation of Southern Palestine began these isolated forces were attacked and pushed back into Ottoman Palestine.

Background

Both the coast road via El Arish, and the road from Ma'an via Nekhl to the Suez Canal were guarded by British ships on the Mediterranean coast and the Gulf of Aqaba respectively. Kress von Kressenstin's force which attacked the canal in February 1915 had moved along the central way across the Sinai desert making use of the water available at Kossaima and Nekhl. Ottoman forces continued to occupy the area on the central way across the Sinai south from el Kossaima towards the Suez Canal, including Bir el Hassana and Nekhl, which was a town of about 50 mud and stone houses, with a mosque and a fort. Located in an area where lack of water and extreme climate made sustained warfare by either side impossible, Nekhl had been an important outpost at the beginning of the war, for the British administration 60 miles (97 km) east of Suez. By 1917 it was still an important outpost from which Ottoman authority over the Arabs and Bedouin could be reinforced.