Within Yildirim Army group, while the Fourth Army headquarters and units in Syria commanded by Djemal Pasha continued to operate, the Ottoman forces in Palestine were reorganised into two armies. The Fourth Army headquarters in Palestine commanded by Kress von Kressenstein, was inactivated on 26 September 1917, and six days later, reactivated as the new Ottoman Eighth Army headquarters, still commanded by Kress von Kressenstein and still with responsibility for the Palestine front. The Seventh Army was commanded by Fevzi Pasha after the resignation of Mustafa Kemal. Although these were significant organisational changes, unlike the reorganisation of the EEF, they did not change the tactical deployments of the Ottoman III, XX, and XXII Corps, defending the Gaza to Beersheba line.It has been claimed, Yildirim Army Group would arrive "too late to conduct offensive operations but just in the nick of time to prevent a major disaster [when] the Yildirim infantry and cavalry divisions provided just enough reserve forces to provide the thinnest of margins necessary for a competent defense." [Erickson 2001 p. 160]
