It is part of the Bashan division in the IDF Northern Command, responsible for the front with Syria.

In the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, it was one of ten brigades fielded by the Haganah (the precursor of the Israeli Defense Forces).

[2] In July 1948, the brigade moved to capture the Arab villages Malha and Ein Karim, with the support of LEHI and Irgun, aiming to link up with the Harel Brigade and capture the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem Railway.

[3] The brigade had attached to it a "Unit of the Minorities" made up of Druze, and smaller numbers of Bedouins and Circassians, who had defected from the Arab Liberation Army.

[6] Involved in the Sinai Campaign against Egypt, the brigade held a victory assembly at Sharm el-Sheikh on 6 November 1956.