ISRAELI OFFENSIVE IN THE NEGEB

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25629, 19 October 1948, Page 5

ISRAELI OFFENSIVE IN THE NEGEB

Early Extension Forecast “(LN. TRUCE MACHINERY HAS BROKEN DOWN” (N.Z. Press Association-Copyright) (Rec. 9 p.m.) LONDON, October 18. “Correspondents have not been allowed to visit the Negeb area, but it is obvious that Israeli columns are ranging far and wide and that air operations have been extended beyond the Negeb’s southern boundary,” says the Tel Aviv correspondent o f “The Times. “It is believed in Tel Aviv that the present limited counteroffensive will be extended during the next few days. The official view is that the United Nations truce machinery has broken do wn, and that the Israeli Army had no alternative but to seize positions vital to the defence of Israeli settlements. “As these settlements are surrounded by the main Egyptian force in Palestine this may prove to be a battle for the Negeb which is certainly Israel’s covert intention.”

A United Nations spokesman in Haifa said yesterday that [graeli forces had launched an air and artillery attack on Gaza, the capital of the new Arab Government for Palestine The jpokesman also said that United Nations observers had been evacuated from Gaza.

Unofficial reports from Tel Aviv say that a Jewish motorised column, with strong air support, has fought its way to within a few miles of Gaza.

Dr Ralph Bunche, the acting United Nations mediator in Palestine, has pronosed a temporary three-day cease-fire order in the Negeb to the Israeli Government. The Israeli authorities said that they would study it. Dr. Bunche conferred with the Israeli Foreign Minister (Mr Moshe Shertok) yesterday in an effort to stop the fight-

Bunche proposed a cease fire without withdrawing from the positions now held, and that all outstanding questions on this outbreak be taken ’m later. _ -

An Israeli military spokesman in Tel Aviv claimed that the Egyptians had heavily shelled the Jewish settlements at Niram Gvaram and Mekoroth. He added that Jewish aeroplanes had bombed Egyptian forces in Majdal w d Faluja. The spokesman claimed that the jews had taken an important height in the Negeb after severe hand-to-hand fighting. The Haifa correspondent of the Associated Press says that United Nations truce observers who are investigating the fighting said that they* were not admitted to many of the Jewish-occupied places. The Jews said that the areas were mined. United Nations observers suggested that Arab civilians should be allowed to return to their homes and harvest their crops before the rains come, and that the Egyptians evacuate the Jewish settlements occupied by them and not improve their positions. The report of the United Rations investigating team to truce headquarters in Palestine suggests that the fighting started when the Jews prevented Arab refugees from harvesting crops on the Jewish side of the truce line.

Clash in Jerusalem An Israeli communique issued m Jerusalem yesterday said that Jewish troops had beaten off Arabs who advanced on Saturday against Jewish positions on Mount Zion.

An official Arab League spokesman declared in Amman yesterday that the Jews violated the truce on a large scale ii Jerusalem on Saturday. They had fired more than 200 shells from Mount Zion, killing three persons, including two civilians, and wounding 15, includingsix civilians. Thousands of refugees living in temporary camps in Lebanon will probably die in the next few months raless they get immediate help, said Mr Stanton Griffis, the American Am-

bassador to Egypt, when he arrived in Beirut after visiting two camps. “The United States has been grossly negligent in this humanitarian problem,” he said. “For the first time in American history we have failed in our responsibilities to help suffering humanity.” Reuter’s correspondent in Haifa learns that the fusion of the Jewish and Arab Communist Parties will formally be carried out in Haifa on October 22. The aim of the united party is defined as “to fight for a binational State of Palestine.”

After a talk with the American representative at the United Nations (Mr Warren Austin), the general chairman of the United Jewish Appeal, Mr Henry Morgenthau, jun., criticised the United Nations for its delay in making a decision on Palestine. Mr Morgenthau said that a strong Palestine State would be a bulwark against Communism in the Middle East.

“The United Nations is running a great risk of becoming an international debating society like the Disarmament Conference back in the thirties,” he said. “The Bernadotte report should be the minimum basis for a settlement.”

Asked what chance he thought there was of action by the United Nations, Mr Morgenthau said: “I am afraid that Palestine may be sold down the river.,”