200 Arabs Attack Lonely Settlement

Northern Advocate, 15 January 1948, Page 5

200 Arabs Attack Lonely Settlement

LONDON, Thu. (12.15 p.m.).—Two hundred Arabs launched a strong attack at dawn on a lonely fortified Jewish settlement half-way between Jerusalem and Hebron.

They raked the settlement with automatic fire and cut telephone lines, says Reuters Jerusalem correspondent. Jews laid down a heavy counter-lire and called by radio for aid. British police and armoured cars, answering the call, encountered barricades and road mines, and came under fire from the hills as they attempted to fight through Arab cordons. A Jewish Agency spokesman said defenders of the settlement between Jerusalem and Hebron beat off a number of attacks, but Arabs still were attacking at sundown. liio British United Press Jerusalem correspondent says unknown assailants killed a British civilian and seriously wounded his wife outside a British Army hut in Jerusalem. The Jerusalem correspondent of Associated Press says one British policeman was killed and one wounded, and several Jews were wounded when a van blew up at the bus terminal at Haifa.

Two persons, who drove the van into the terminal, left it before the explosion occurred. JEWS IN NIGHT ATTACK Armed Jews of the Haganah “Black Squad’’ in one of the heaviest night attacks of the Palestine fighting, assaulted the Sheik Jarrah Arab quarter, which is north of the Old City of Jerusalem, and blew up or burned 25 Arab houses. The attackers sent a steady rain ot mortar shells on the area and subjected police in armoured cars to heavy fire. Arab sources claim that the attack was abortive. Haganah, at sundown, attacked for a third time in 24 hours the Sheikh Jarrah and Nashashibi Arab quarters of Jerusalem in an attempt to blast a way to the Hebrew University and hospital on Mt Scopus. Two Arab communities lie athwart the only Jewish road to Mt Scopus. ’ Eight explosions shook Jerusalem from the direction of the attack. Heavy automatic weapon fire followed. Observers an Mt Scopus saw mortar shells falling on Arab houses and people scattering for shelter. Arab sniping squads are rushing to positions. Stating that the odds are heavily against any prospects of a peaceful settlement in Palestine after Britain’s abandonment of the mandate and subsequent withdrawal, the military correspondent of The Times says the Jewish extremists manifestly realise that they have much to gain by striking quickly. LIKELY ARAB POLICY

However, there is also evidence that both sides desire to avoid the development of full-scale civil war which, the correspondent points out, might be directly disastrous for the Jews and produce reactions ultimately no less so for the Arabs. Arab policy, he says, will probably be the penetration of Jewish areas by partisan fighters. The Jews are better armed for a struggle of this kind, but they are more vulnerable because a Jewish state cannot keep alive without a definite organisation and ordered economy. If the result were to be a running down of the political and economic machinery, including a stoppage of transport, this would obviously damage the Jews rather than the Arabs. TO GUARD CONSULATES Gunmen who ambushed an Iraki Consular car seriously wounded the chauffeur and slightly wounded two women occupants w'ho were the chauffeur’s relatives, says Reuters Jerusalem correspondent. The Palestine Government has granted Saudi Arabi permission to send in Saudi Arabian troops to guard its consulate at Jerusalem. It also is authoritatively learned that all consulates in Jerusalem have ■received permission to bring in their own national troops for guard duties if they desire. Officers A number of former officers of the British Army have arrived in Paris on their way to join the Arab forces in the Middle East, says the Eveniirg Standard's Paris correspondent.

Former members of the French Resistance are also being recruited for “an Arab Foreign Legion.” Izzcdecn Shawa, head of the Arab political mission in London, said thousands of ex-servicemen had offered to join the Arab forces but the Arabs were not asking for volunteers. New York Arrests Four persons have been arrested at New York in connection with the attempted illegal shipment of explosives to Palestine. The head of the New York office (Mr E. D. Scheidt) said other individuals were being sought. A charge of falsely stating, or causing to be stated, contents of shipments, has been laid against Philip Alper, Moses Wolfson, Jack Dorfman, and Joseph Seiger, all New Yorkers.

The men were arrested after investigation of CO,OOO lbs of TNT, found in cases marked “Industrial Machinery,” aboard the freighter Executor, in Jersey City on June 3. Mr Scheidt said Alper apparently made all arrangements for shipment.

[All cable news appearing in this issue is acknowledged as follows: —New Zealand Press Association-Reuters-Copyright.]