EGYPTIANS AND JEWS SIGN ARMISTICE

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25738, 25 February 1949, Page 7

EGYPTIANS AND JEWS SIGN ARMISTICE

Decisions On Withdrawal In Negeb

BEERSHEBA TO BE RETAINED BY ISRAEL

(N.Z.P.A.—Reuter—Copyright)

(Rec. 9 p.m.) RHODES, February 24. The Jews and Egyptians to-day ended nine months of strife In Palestine when they signed a general armistice. There will be a general reduction of troops in the southern Negeb. In the area of the western front under Irsaeli control, Israeli defensive forces only, which shall be based on the settlements, may be maintained.. All other Israeli forces shall be withdrawn to a point or points north of the line provided for in the resolution of the Security Council on November 4, 1948. (This called on the Jews and Arabs to withdraw to the positions held before the truce was broken.) In the area of the western front under Egyptian control, Egyptian defensive forces only may be maintained. All other Egyptian forces shall be withdrawn to a point or points no further east than El Arish and Abueigila., Beersheba is to be retained by Israel, but the garrison will he reduced to the status of an armed police force. El Auja, a road junction near the Egyptian border captured by Israeli forces during the last Negeb campaign, will be evacuated and demilitarised. An armistice commission composed of an Israeli officer, an Egyptian officer, and a United Nations official will control the El Auja crossroads. The Gaza-Rafah coastal strip will remain under Egyptian civil administration, assisted by light security forces, and the Egyptian brigade beleagured since October at Faluja, northeast of Gaza, will be withdrawn with full military honours. Its heavy armament will be impounded by the United Nations until peace is declared*. The agreement lays it down that the demarcation line agreed on between the parties is not to be construed in any sense as a political or territorial boundary. The line, the agreement says, “is delineated without prejudice to the rights, claims, and positions of either party to the armistice as regards the ultimate settlement of the Palestine question.”