ATTACK ON GAOL

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25178, 8 May 1947, Page 7

ATTACK ON GAOL

16 ARAB PRISONERS RECAPTURED

COURT OF INQUIRY OPENS

(Rec. 8.30 p.m.) JERUSALEM, May 7. Sixteen Arab prisoners who escaped from the Acre prison are now back ih custody, including one who, although serving a life sentence, tired so quickly of his freedom that he telephoned the pblice to cohie and fetch him. No Jews have been recaptured. As evidence that the attack on the prison was not unexpected it has been established that some prisoners waved a cloth set ablaze with paraffin as a diversion. The theory is now advanced that the Arab prisoners spoilt the affair for the Jews by stampeding towards the breached wall and preventing more Jews escaping. A correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” reports that the first sittings of the official court of inquiry into the breaching of the prison have already been .held in Jerusalem. It is suggested that Irgun Zvai Leumi acted With the connivance of certain Arab elements in the city. Recently Irgun Zvai Leumi has been making overtures to the Arabs, and it is pointed out that * Arab prisoners were given the same opportunities to escape as Jews. The utmost confusion sefems to. pre* vail ihside the prison and the official figures of the number of escapees have been altered three times already. The latest figure given is 183 Arabs and 33 Jews. The terrorists are now known to have lost 14 killed and 16 capturedThe total population of the prison before the attack was 550 Arabs, of whom 56 were criminal lunatics, and 163 Jews, of whohi 58 were criminal lunatics. It has now been established that, the leader of the operation was killed during the attack. He has been identified as Bernard Cohen Silverstone, of Tel AviV. He was found wearing a British’ officer’s uniform. Another known Irgun Zvai Leumi leader killed during the attack was Haim Brenner, who was previously deported from Eritrea. He was reported to be the Jerusalem commander of Irgun Zvai Leumi.