This period constitutes the first phase of the 1948 Palestine war, during which the Jewish and Arab communities of Palestine, supported by the Arab Liberation Army, clashed while the British, who had the obligation to maintain order, organized their withdrawal and intervened only on an occasional basis. The next phase of the conflict was the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, which began on 15 May 1948, on the termination of the British Mandate for Palestine and the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, when the surrounding Arab states, Egypt,Iraq and Syria invaded the state of Israel.