After the ottoman empire lost the war in palestine, U.N. divided palestine in 2 states, is it true that palestine began to attack Israel first?

1. The Ottoman exit and British mandate set the stage, but the immediate trigger was the UN partition vote

The Ottoman Empire’s defeat in World War I led to British rule over Mandatory Palestine, and decades of competing nationalist movements preceded the 1947 UN Partition Resolution that recommended dividing the mandate into Jewish and Arab states; Jewish leaders accepted the plan while Arab leaders rejected it, creating a political rupture that immediately produced violence ^{[4] [1]}.

2. Violence began as intercommunal civil war after the UN vote — not as a simple first strike by one side

The first phase of fighting is widely dated to 30 November 1947, the day after the UN adopted Partition, when Jewish and Arab militias and irregulars began clashes across the mandate; historians and encyclopedias describe this period as a civil war in which both communities engaged in offensives and reprisals, with Jewish forces initially defensive and later switching to the offensive by April 1948 ^{[1] [3]}.

3. From late 1947 through May 1948 there were attacks, reprisals, and shifting offensives on both sides

Contemporary accounts and historians record episodes such as attacks on villages and massacres (for example Deir Yassin and subsequent reprisals), the Haganah’s offensive operations in early 1948, and Palestinian armed actions — evidence that violence was mutual and decentralized rather than a one-sided “Palestinian” assault on a non‑existent state called Israel before May 14 ^{[3] [5] [1]}.

4. Statehood changed the character of the conflict: Arab states invaded after Israel’s declaration

When Jewish leaders proclaimed the State of Israel on 14 May 1948, armies from Egypt, Transjordan (Jordan), Syria, Iraq and Lebanon entered the former mandate the next day, transforming the civil war into an international war; major U.S. and diplomatic histories emphasize that the large-scale interstate invasion followed the declaration of independence ^{[2] [6]}.

5. Scholarly caveats and contested narratives — both asymmetry and agency matter

Scholars note asymmetries in organization, armament and outcomes — Zionist militias had better organization in some phases and later formed the IDF, while Arab forces included regular armies and volunteers — and they document controversial practices such as expulsions and operations like “Cast Thy Bread,” evidencing actions by Jewish forces that contributed to refugee flows ^{[7] [5]}. Sources vary in emphasis: Israeli-oriented narratives often stress the Arab invasion after statehood ^{[2] [6]}, while Arab and Palestinian accounts foreground the Nakba and expulsions that started during the civil-war phase ^{[5] [3]}.

6. Direct answer: the reality is nuanced — not a single “Palestine attacked Israel first” moment

If the question seeks a single chronological act of Palestinian aggression that began the conflict, the historical record does not support that simplification: communal warfare began immediately after the UN partition vote in late 1947 with violence and attacks on both sides, and the larger international war began only after Israel’s declaration and the entry of Arab states in May 1948 ^{[1] [2] [3]}. Claims that one side “began” the war first therefore depend on which phase is being referenced and which actors (local militias versus Arab states) are being named; the best statement is that the conflict unfolded in phases with reciprocal violence before and after partition ^{[1] [2]}.