ARAB ARMIES RING PALESTINE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22512, 16 December 1947, Page 7

ARAB ARMIES RING PALESTINE

LEBANON FORCES CLOSE FRONTIER SYRIANS & BEDOUINS MOVE TO BORDERS (N.Z.P.A.—Router— Copyright.) (10 a.m., LONDON, Dec. 15. Arab armies have tightened the ring of steel round Palestine as Arab-Jewish clashes continue, report agency dispatches from Jerusalem. Lebanon has closed its frontiers with a “shoot to kill” order except for one fi'ontier control post. Syria’s “People’s Army” volunteers have moved to the shores of the Galilee. The Transjordan Bedouins have formed the eastern wall of the ring. .

Arabs attacked Jewish lorries carrying food near Maayan Baruch and killed a Jewish policeman. The explosion wrecked an Arab house in Tel Arriss. The Haganah claimed it was a strongpoint which directed Arab fire during the snipers’ skirmish with a Haganah post at Holon, south of Tel Aviv. Both Sides Suffer Heavily The official report of incidents in Jerusalem for the 24 hours up to midnight on Sunday was the longest daily list yet issued —12 ambushes causing the loss of life, 17 cases' of arms smuggling, nine cases of fire-raising, six bomb throwings and six pillaging cases. The Times correspondent in Jerusalem, reported that Arabs as well as Jews suffered severely on December 14 from attacks. Bombs were thrown or rolled in barrels among Arabs in Jerusalem and Haifa. Jews attacked a police truck convoy in Jerusalem with grenades and machine-guns and wounded four members of the Arab Transjordan Frontier Force, says Reuter’s correspondent in Jerusalem. Fire destroyed one truck.

It is officially announced that four Jews, dressed in army uniforms, threw “Molotov cocktails” and fired on a bus at El Ain and killed one and wounded seven Arabs.

Tne Irgun Zvai Leumi or Stern Gang were apparently responsible for the attack against a village near Tel Aviv in which 18 Arabs were killed and 100 injured. The Jewish community and the Haganah once again face the issue—whether they really want to curb Arab bands by answering attacks or whether to remain supine so as to avoid Arab retaliation. The test of Jewish strategy will come in Tel Aviv today when the British police depart. Jews Protest to British The Jewish Agency, lodging a formal protest with the High Commissioner, General Sir Alan Cunningham, about the Arab Legion’s attack on a Jewish convoy said the Jews repulsed the legionaries. The agency claimed that the Jews did not fire or throw bombs until they were attacked. Following the attack, the Irgun Zvai Leumi broadcast a threat to attack all Arab Legion’s camps unless the legion is withdrawn from Palestine immediately. About 3000 legionaries have been in Palestine for a year relieving British troops from guard duties. Arabs attacked a Jewish farm colony in the Beersheba area, killed a' Jewish settlement policeman, critically wounded three Jewish farmers and burned the colony’s water waggon which the Jews were escorting.