HAGANAH OFFENSIVE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22510, 13 December 1947, Page 5

HAGANAH OFFENSIVE

ARAB TRANSPORT UNDER FIRE SYRIAN AND IRAQI THREATS (N. Z. P. A .—Reuter—Copyright.) (10.30 a.m.) LONDON, Dec. 12. The Jewish defence force, the Haganah, is mounting the biggest offensive yet against the Arabs in Palestine with countrywide attacks on transport, in which 13 Arabs so far are reported to have been killed, says Reuter’s correspondent in Jerusalem. Twenty-five Arabs and 12 Jews have been killed in the past 24 hours. x

Attack on Arab Village Jews who attacked the Arab village of Tira, near Haifa, with Sten guns and grenades killed 12 Arabs and wounded six. Ten bombs wrecked a bus company depot and an adjoining garage in Ramleh, killing the watchman and wounding another. Several casualties are reported in a grenade attack on the offices of two Arab transport companies, a gunsmith’s shop and a cafe in Jerusalem. The police reported that several Arab temporary policemen who were posted at isolated spots absconded with arms and ammunition. Arabs in Lydda town held up at gunpoint a British Overseas Airways Corporation wagon taking passengers from Lydda airport to Jerusalem, dragged the driver from the seat and drove it away. The waggon was later found burnt, with three charred bodies in it, says Reuter’s correspondent in Jerusalem. It is officially reported that seven passengers are missing. Their natinonalities are unknown. The British United Press correspondent says that before the attack on the B. waggon it was reported that 40 Arabs and Jews had been been killed in Palestine during the previous 24 hours. The death list since the United States decision on partition totalled four Britons 83 Jews, 63 Arabs and two others. Battle For Palestine Next Year The battle for Palestine would begin in 1948 and would not be only for the liberation of the Holy Land but for the beginning of Arab resurrection, said the Syrian Minister of Defence, Ahmad Charabati, who is attending the Arab League talks in Cairo. “It will be like going into a bloodbath —to come out clean,” he said. They would spare no effort to achieve victory, believing that all means would justify the end. In Baghdad today, Mohamed A 1 Sawaf, Secretary-General of the “Save Palestine Society,” declared that tribal sheikhs were arming 500,000 Arabs who are “ready to go to Palestine immediately.” Fifty thousand youths who had volunteered in the last week would soon begin military training under the former chief of staff of the Iraqi Army, General Hussain Fawzi. Clashes Last Seven Hours Jewish-Arab clashes continued for seven hours in Jerusalem on Thursday and were eventually subdued by British troops who cordoned the streets with barbed wire and Bren-gun carriers. Fighting began at 5 a.m. in the city’s tortuous streets, says the Daily Telegraph’s correspondent in Jerusalem, and lasted until nearly midday. After order had been restored both sides imposed a voluntary curfew. The day’s biggest single incident, the correspondent says, was the ambushing by a large party of Arabs of a convoy of Jewish lorries between Jerusalem and Hebron. Fire directed from three sides killed nine Jews and wounded six. The police say that more than 150 shots were fired at lorries. An unofficial truce .was observed along the Jaffa-Tel Aviv border, but in Haifa there were several Jewish attacks on Arabs, including bomb throwing. Caught in the fire of Jewish policemen firing at Arab attackers on the highway near Tel Aviv, the British Assistant District Commissioner, Mr. E. C. Eggins, walked toward the policemen waving a white handkerchief and persuaded them to hold their fire and ran up and down between the opposing parties unil they agreed to stop fighting. ' t