sentences:  By December 1948, Israel controlled most of the portion of Mandate Palestine west of the Jordan River.The remainder of the Mandate consisted of Jordan, the area that came to be called the West Bank (controlled by Jordan), and the Gaza Strip (controlled by Egypt).Prior to and during this conflict, 713,000 Palestinian Arabs fled their original lands to become Palestinian refugees, in part due to a promise from Arab leaders that they would be able to return when the war had been won, and also in part due to attacks on Palestinian villages and towns by Israeli forces and Jewish militant groups.