18 KILLED IN PALESTINE

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25380, 31 December 1947, Page 5

18 KILLED IN PALESTINE

Worst Clashes In Jerusalem

FIRING CONTINUES INTO NIGHT

(Rec. 9.40 p.m.) LONDON. Dec. 30 At least 18 persons, including three British policemen and a British soldier. are known to have been killed yesterday in Palestine. The worst clashes were in the old city of Jerusalem, where firing was still going on late last night. “The pressure of events is becoming so strong.” says the Jerusalem correspondent of “The Times,” “that something will have to be done soon to break the entanglement of Britons, Arabs, and Jews. “One suggestion is that Britain Should do everything possible to leave sooner than the date now in mind, namely, next May. It is hard io visualise four months of the present nebulous position, where the British are- expected to do more and more, but are* able or willing to do less and less.”

Reuter’s correspondent in Jerusalem says that Jewish civil servants decided last night to strike to-day unless the Administration moved Government departments “exposed to the dangers of Arab attacks” to Jewish areas. In a clash at the Damascus Gate yesterday. armed Jews killed 13 Arabs, and Arabs killed two British constables.

The police said Jews in a taxi raked an Arab bus leaving for Nablus with automatic fire, and threw a grenade into an orange market. The police added that Arabs chased and caught the Jewish taxi, killed one Jew. and wounded two others. The Arabs brought the taxi back to the Damascus Gate and set it on fire. Enraged Arabs killed two British constables who were trying to put out the fire and restore order. The grenade thrown into the orange market shook the area round the Damascus Gate. Dead and wounded Arabs were found lying among the scattered oranges after the explosion. Later, infuriated Arabs swarmed through the Old City’s streets seeking to avenge their fellows. Ban on Jewish Taxis

“The authorities have banned all Jewish - taxi-cabs from Jerusalem’s streets from dawn to-day until further notice as a sequel to the Damascus Gate outrage,” says Reuter’s Jerusalem correspondent. A hand grenade thrown at the entrance of Barclay’s Bank in Jerusalem yesterday afternoon killed one Jewish employee and slightly injured three others.

Men believed to be Arabs shot and killed a British constable in a gunfight near the Austrian hospice in the Old City of Jerusalem yesterday. Dr. C. Malouf, an Arab physician in charge of the Bethlehem Mental Hospital. was shot dead on the road to Bethlehem. Arab sources claimed it was a reprisal by Jews for the killing yesterday of a Jewish doctor outside Jerusalem.

Armed men stormed a British Army camp east of Jaffa and killed one “T}* 15 * 1 soldier and wounded two others The men are believed to have been Jews. They wore battledress and steel helmets. They attacked the camp armoury under heavy fire, and ® .?J e , 74 ri ? es k seven Sten guns, six pistols, and 3000 rounds of ammuni-

4 b°lice said that the men entered the camp by cutting the perimeter wire.

Jews attacked a Transjordan Frontt e LJ Orce near Rosh Pina, in Galilee, and killed an Arab and wound ed three Arab

A police report says that a few t approached the shore near Jaffa but withdrew after police i aun ™ s manned by Arabs opened iicTe Tbere were no casualties on either

ih^T^ esSase Ba £dad says that the Iraq army has cancelled leave for omcers. doctors, and nurses. The PalvniM»t2? efe u C ? Committee said that fJ'S? ei ? keen leaving Bagdad three d?vs deStinati ° ns during the last