TWO-PRONGED ASSAULT ON JAFFA

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22624, 29 April 1948, Page 5

TWO-PRONGED ASSAULT ON JAFFA

HAGANAH JOINS IRGUN FORCES SAVAGE BATTLE IN SUBURBS BRITISH INTERVENE TO SAVE ARABS (N.Z.P.A.—Reuter— Copyright.) (II a.m.) JERUSALEM, April 28 The Jewish defence force, Haganah, has joined fhe battle for Jaffa, supporting the terrorist group Irgun Zvai Leumi in operations against three key suburbs. The fighting with automatic weapons and mortars was the heaviest since the Irgun forces began the attack on the city on April 25. CANNON-FIRING SPITFIRES BLAST JEWS

The Irgun claims the capture of the whole of the Mansheih quarter of Jaffa, which juts into the southern half of Tel Aviv. British Army and Air Force units went into action in the Jaffa-Tel Aviv border areas to break up Jewish attacks on Jaffa. Royal Air Force rocket-firing Spitfires attacked Jewish terrorist headquarters at Bat Yam on the outskirts of Jaffa. The Jews were firing from the headquarters on Arab refugees trying to leave Jaffa by boat. It is believed that British troops who were intervening in Jaffa are using artillery, mortars and armoured vehicles to break up Jewish concentrations in the Jaffa-Tel Aviv border area. Irgun Zvai Leumi men, who broke through the Arab defences north-east of Jaffa, reached the sea and mopped up the whole of the Mansheih area and then swung south along the coast towards the port of Jaffa, says the British United Press correspondent in Tel Aviv. , The Haganah offensive from the * south continues. The evacuation of 60,000 Arabs is reported to be speeding . ; UPfV Palestine today is a picture of chacs, r':. rumours, wild lawlessness and misery .f ; bn, the march, says the Daily Mail correspondent. “Jerusalem is a city of A desolation. Most Government depart!'f' riients have ceased to function and thou- , sands of the inhabitants have fled as - Arab and Jewish fighting units Ring up y their defences ready for battle. ” Looting continues in Jerusalem where A the British United Press correspondent

saw youths piling typewriters, tables and chairs on donkeys and handcarts. A policeman, who stood watching, said laughingly: They broke into some Government office but they are as much entitled to it as some armed gang.” Foreign correspondents have appealed to Arabs and Jews to respect press camps that the correspondents are establishing in Jerusalem. The appeal says that the foreign correspondents are neutral and unarmed.