In 202 BC, Ptolemy son of Thraseas, the Ptolemaic governor of Coele-Syria, defected to the side of Antiochus III the Great, the ruler of the Seleucid Empire.

[1] Antiochus invaded and occupied most of the province, including the city of Gaza, by the autumn of 201 BC, when he returned to winter quarters in Syria.

[4] Pressed from two sides by war elephants, phalangites, and cataphracts, the relatively immobile Ptolemaic phalanx was almost annihilated where they stood.

[5] Scopas led 10,000 men to seek refuge at Sidon; other Ptolemaic contingents fled to Jerusalem, Phoenicia, Samaria and Decapolis.

As one of the battle's results, the Ptolemaic state was forced to scale down the role of the Macedonian settler phalanx in the years that followed.

[7] Some biblical commentators see this battle as being the one referred to in Daniel 11:15, where it says, "Then the king of the North will come and build up siege ramps and will capture a fortified city.