“LAST DITCH” STAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26779, 24 May 1948, Page 5

“LAST DITCH” STAND

Trapped Jews in OH City Appeal for Aid

New Zealand Press Association.—Copyright. Rec. U p.m. LONDON, May 22. One thousand Jews who are trapped in the Old City making “a last ditch ” stand, sent out a radio S.O.S. for aid to-night. They are believed to be on the verge of surrender to the Arab Legion unless help arrives from forces outside the Old City walls. Strong Jewish forces outside the walls launched determined attacks this afternoon with mortars and armoured cars to break through the Zion and Damascus Gates, but the Arab Legion and Arab irregulars repulsed them with heavy losses. Several hundred Jews swept down from Mount Zion and assaulted the south-east corner of the Old City near the Jewish quarter, which is now a heap of rubble. Jews attacking in waves reached the walls under heavy machine gun fire but the legionaries and irregulars finally forced the Jews to retreat to Mount Zion by hurling grenades from the ramparts.

At the Zion Gate, the Jews tried to use an armoured vehicle like an ancient assault tower by clambering over the top of it on to the Old City Wall. An Arab Legion commander estimated that 600 Jews made a desperate assault on Zion Gate after making diversionary attacks on three other gates in the West Wall. The Arabs have claimed that they have isolated Jerusalem from the rest of Palestine. The irregulars’ commander in the Old City announced that there would be no more cease fires until the Jews capitulated. The Jews had broken too many agreements and the Arabs were now demanding nothing hut the unconditional surrender of all Jerusalem. It is reported from Amman, however, that Azzam Pasha, secretary of the Arab League, said the Arabs would still keep to their original Jerusalem truce terms if the Jews accepted them. The terms included the disarming of the city and neutral control of all food convoys from the coast to the city to prevent the smuggling of arms. Jerusalem strategically resembled a target this morning, with the Old City as the bull’s-eye. Around it the Arabs

of Jerusalem. They began mopping up last Jewish posts within a very narrow area of the Old City. The communique added that Arab Legion artillery silenced Jewish positions in the Hebrew University area which opened fire on the Arab-held Sheikh Jarrah. Seventy men, women and children have been killed and more than 100 injured in air raids on Tel-Aviv. The

city is still without fighter defence and daylight raiders hedge-hop over the rooftops. A Jewish sniper killed Father John Salah of the Passionist Order as he entered the church on the Mount of Olives to celebrate Mass. The State Department in Washington announced that the American Con-sul-general, Mr Thomas C. Wasson, was seriously wounded in Jerusalem to-day while returning from a truce commission meeting at the French consulate. Egyptian planes three times bombed the British airfield of Hamit David, east of Haifa, to-day. Two R.A.F. planes were destroyed, two British ground staff were killed and four seriously wounded. A British statement said the raid occurred at 6 a.m. Three Spitfires, identified as Egyptian, attacked the field later, causing further damage. British planes this time were in tne air and shot down two of the attackers and also two more Egyptian planes which made a third attack. Many British aircraft were on the field, which is the main point for the British enclave in Haifa. All were clearly marked with British insignia The raids came as 2000 British troops were boarding the Strathnaver in Haifa for England. All four Egyptian pilots who participated in the raid were reported killed. The Air Ministry disclosed that in addition to the Egyptian Spitfires shot down, another had been officially reported as possibly shot down. A Foreign Office spokesman said that Ramit David was within the 20 mile radius from Haifa which the authorities announced that British troops would use during the evacuation. The Egyptian communique announces that five planes were lost in air operations. The communique stated that the Royal Egyptian Air Force yesterday morning planned to raid the Jewish aerodrome at Meggido. five miles south of Nazareth, but as the British aerodrome of Ramit David is also situated in the same direction south-west of Nazareth, “ bad weather conditions resulted in our planes mistaking the British airfield for Jewish.” An,Egyptian Army communique claimed an entry in Bethlehem and also stated that Egyptian forces advancing from Gaza had entered Elmejdel. The comrriunique added that Egyptian forces are now within a few miles of a link-up with the Arab Legion troops encircling Jerusalem. A Bagdad communique stated that Iraqi planes bombed Beisan, and a Jewish settlement in Jordan Valley. The planes inflicted heavy losses in a Jewish column on the road to Beisan. According to a Jewish report, Arabs on Friday near Jaffa Gate dragged the head of the International Red Cross delegation, Dr de Reynier, from his car arid assaulted him. The report added that Dr de Reynier was stripped of his clothes.

established a second ring. One hundred thousands Jews of the New City form the third ring around these Arabs. The Jewish ring is in turn isolated by a fourth, and also outer rings of Arabs. Arab irregulars in the Old City reported that Jewish resistance within the Jewish quarter was comnre" o ' l into an area of about a-quarter-mile square, where the Jewish ligiueib . making a stand in the ancient underground passages. Some of the tunnels date back to Roman times, and thenare caves 70 feet deep in this subterranean area. Jewish fighters, with desperate skill, have moved their small force to meet shifting Arab points of attack as the Legion pounded them with mortar and artillery fire. To-day the rumble of falling masonry mingled with the Sabbath prayers of weary Jews. Dust filtered down the dim passages of tunnels, laying a shroud over dead Jews carried in from the streets above. Only 400 yards away Arab urchins played hopscotch with spent cartridge shells beside the Wailing Wall, the A —'hs captured on Friday. Slips — prayers and appeals left by jews in cracks in the Wall—flapped in the breeze. A Jewish plane scored a direct hit on an Egyptian train during a moonlight raid in the Gaza area. A Hagannh communique said Jewish forces had attacked the Sheikh Jarrah area and inflicted heavy casualties. Haganah reported that the Arab fire seriously wounded a Swiss nurse of the International Red Cross while on a mercy mission The nurse w- 1 - in a clearly marked ambulance travelling to Lydda to carry out an exchange of Jewish and Arab children under a formal cease-fire agreement. The exchange did not take place because of the nurse being wounded. An Arab Legion communique said legionaries successfully attacked the Ramat Rachel settlement on the Bethlehem road on the southern outskirts