TERRORISTS SHOOT BRITISH SOLDIERS IN PALESTINE CITIES

Grey River Argus, 30 June 1947, Page 5

TERRORISTS SHOOT BRITISH SOLDIERS IN PALESTINE CITIES

.(Rec. 7.30). JERUSALEM, June 2'9. Two British soldiers were killed, and five were wounded in attacks made by Jewish terrorists in Tel Aviv and in Haifa last night. Terrorists, hiding in a dark alley in Tel Aviv, opened fire with sub-machine-gun? on fc-ur soldiers, who never had a chance to draw their guns. Two of the soldiers were killed, and two were seriously wounded. The terrorists escaped in a car. They are believed to have been members of the Stern Gang, and to have been avenging the death of Alexander Rubowitz, whose disappearance from Palestine on May 6 was linked with the arrest and escape from custody of Major Roy Rarran. Sirens sounded in Tel Aviv five minutes- after the attack. Then tanks and armoured cars began rushing through the streets, firing sporadically. A brigadier commanding the First Infantry Division ordered the shooting to stop, after a Jewish woman was nicked in the leg with a stray shot. The Army invoked “Operation Purple”, which freezes all off-duty troops in their quarters. In Haifa, a taxi drove up to the Astorie Cafe. One Jewis-h gunman fired a Stea gun through a window, wounding three British officers and a Jewish barman. Biitish casualties in Palestine since Januarv are fifteen dead and thirty injured. The United Rations Inquiry Commission announced that it has recommended oral hearings for nine organisations, . including the Communist Party of Palestine, the Israle World Organisation, the Jewish Agency, and the General Federation of Jewish Labour in Palestine.

It is reported, from Beirut, that the Lebanese and the Syrian Governments have declined an invitation from the Commission to send delegates to Jerusalem.