500 Deaths in Fortnight

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 238, 8 October 1938, Page 5

500 Deaths in Fortnight

Disturbing Situation in Palestine ARAB TERRORISM ON THE INCREASE United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright. Received Friday, 11 p.m. LONDON, October 7. The situation in North Palestine is particularly bad, says the Cairo correspondent of the Daily Mail. The leader of the rebellion is now a fugitive in Beyrout from British authority, and Abdel Rahman Haj Mohammed is com-mander-in-chief of the organised rebels. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem is more powerful than ever. Palestine is becoming a land of razed villages and empty houses, the occupants of which have joined the rebels because there was nowhere else to go. Abdel Rahman issues daily communiques, which mysteriously appear on doorsteps in the troubled areas. One hundred and thirty Arabs were killed by British troops in 2 4 hours. There has been an aggregate of 500 deaths in a fortnight, which is a record casualty list. Arabs have damaged tne railway to the extent of £2OOO. They ambushed three road trucks, killed two Jewish drivers, and wounded one, and set fire to the trucks. A fourth Jew is missing. Police subsequently killed two of the brigands. The encounter flared up into a general engagement in which troops and aircraft participated. Additional terrorism accounts for the deaths of two Arab constables and one Jewish constable. Arabs punctured the pipe line, ignited the oil, and cut the telephone wires in the Nazareth district.