ISRAELI INCURSIONS INTO TRANSJORDAN Britain May Have To Act Under Treaty.

Northern Advocate, 9 December 1948, Page 5

ISRAELI INCURSIONS INTO TRANSJORDAN

Britain May Have To Act Under Treaty.

PARIb, Wed. (11.30 a.m.) —The British delegate (Mr Harold Beeley) told the Security Council’s Palestine Committee that because Israeli forces had made “two small incursions” over the Transjordan frontier Britain might be obliged to take action under her treaty with Transjordan. Mr Beeley said British information was that Jewish forces were advancing southwards from the Dead Sea and had reached half-way to the Gulf of Aqaba. He added that the time had arrived for the council to force Israel out of the disputed military positions in the Negev.

The acting Palestine mediator (Dr Bunche) told the committee that the United Nations’ observers in the Transjordan frontier area had no information of any fresh movement of Jewish troops as suggested by Mr Beeley. MISTAKEN? The Israel delegate (Mr Aubrey Eban) denied the British statements. “It would seem that observer teams are maintained separately by the United Nations and Mr Beeley, and Britain is campaigning against admitting Israel to United Nations membership.” Mr Eban said Israel had important industrial and scientific interests near Aqaba, and it was normal that police protection should be given them. The Associated Press correspondend says this is taken to suggest that Jewish troop dispositions might have been mistaken as full-scale movements aimed against Transjordan. NEGEV SUFFERING The United Nations is rushing emergency relief to Southern Palestine to halt the mounting death roll of refugees in the disputed Negev desert, says the Associated Press Paris correspondent. Mr Stanton Griffis, newly appointed United Nations’ Palestine relief director, described the Negev as the worst spot in the Middle East, where at least 150,000 are homeless.

Mr Griffis stated that he had two recent dispatches from Negev which reported that these homeless groups were dying at the rate of 120 daily from starvation, dysentery and exposure. 100 EGYPTIANS KILLED The Associated Press Tel Aviv correspondent says an Army spokesman claimed today that Egyptian infantry lost more than 100 killed and wounded in clashes with Israeli forces near Nirim, in the Southern Palestine desert of the Negev. A Tel Aviv report says five Egyptian tanks were knocked out by Israeli forces in a clash before dawn yesterday in southern Palestine. The tanks were of British design and of a type not hitherto seen in southern Palestine. They were knocked out when the Egyptians tried to support units mining roads and sabotaging Jewish water pipelines near the Egyptian border. The Security Council Committee has given a 48 hours' ultimatum to Jews and Arabs to obey the United Nations Security Council orders for military withdrawals in the Negev and for full armistice negotiations. If no steps are’made to comply with the ultimatum, the Security Council will be asked to consider what action should be taken.

The special committee meets on December 10 to hear a report on the matter from Dr Bunche.