The loss of Beersheba on 31 October stunned the Yildirim Army Group commander and staff. The Beersheba garrison withdrew either to the Ottoman defences around Tel es Sheria or northwards to Tel el Khuweilfe to defend the Hebron road. Here a considerable force, including all available reserve units, was deployed in the Kuweilfeh area to stop a threatened advance up the Hebron road to Jerusalem about to the north. According to Powles, " ... the Turkish line had been thrown back on its left, but not broken." The remainder of the Ottoman line stretching westward to the Mediterranean coast continued to be strongly defended, particularly at Hareira, Sharia and Gaza, but the loss of Beersheba had placed EEF mounted units across the Beersheba to Hebron and Jerusalem road, and three Eighth Army infantry battalions were sent by the German General Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein to reinforce the Ottoman troops fighting at Khuweilfe to protect the road. They established a new defensive line north of Beersheba, and the 19th Division was sent from the XXII Corps defending Gaza to reinforce the new line at Ebuhof. However, the objective of the EEF advance north of Beersheba was to separate the Ottoman forces supplied by the roads and railways from Ramleh on the maritime plain from those supplied by the motor road from Jerusalem north of Beersheba. Such an advance would also place the EEF infantry corps in a position to begin to "roll up" the Ottoman flank.