ISRAELI ARMY THRUST

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27028, 12 March 1949, Page 7

ISRAELI ARMY THRUST

Advance on British-occupied Red Sea Port CLASHES WITH ARAB LEGION \ New Zealand Press Association—Copyright * Rec. 11 p.m. j LONDON, Mar. 11. Official reports in Amman maintain that heavy fighting is going on near Akaba, the Palestine Red Sea port where British forces are stationed, says the Associated Press Amman correspondent. Reports say that an Israeli mechanised column advancing along a route parallel with the Egyptian-Palestine border reached a p&int. 10 miles north-west of Akaba before it was repulsed by the Arab Legion forces. The Jews are strengthening their campaign to gain the strategic base on the Red Sea and Israeli forces are continuously receiving reinforcements.

A fierce engagement was reported yesterday to have taken place between Transjordan Arab Legion troops and an Israeli armoured column in brigade strength which has been moving since March 7 towards Akaba. In London the threat of trouble in the Akaba region is considered particularly dangerous from the British viewpoint, for this is the only region in which the British Government could again become directly involved in the Palestine situation.

designs on Transjordan or on Akaba port.” , , Reuter’s Amman correspondent says that, according to reliable sources, a Jewish force is digging in near Akaba and waiting to link up with a larger force advancing along the Wadi Araba. Politcial observers in Amman describe the Israeli advance as a “Pearl Harbour,” and are asking whether Britain, if necessary, would act to protect the territorial integrity of Transjordan.' Reliable Transjordan sources said that the Jewish forces were equipped with heavy tanks carrying 75-milli-metre guns. The > main part of the force proceeded along the Wadi Araba (the border between Palestine and Transjordan) and was repulsed by Arab forces encamped on the Trans-

Diplomatic sources in London, however, were still not clear whether the movement of the Israelis had be’fen definitely halted by the Transjordan Arab Legion. No official reports of fighting between Israeli and Transjordan troops in'Palestine had reached London, and the only official news

available was the Transjordan^Government statement that Israeli troops were moving in the direction of Akaba. This report was sent to the Foreign Office by the British Minister in Amman, Sir Alex. Kirkbride. Reuter’s Amman correspondent, however, quotes authoritative sources for a report that an Israeli force today established itself on the shores of the Gulf of Akaba, close to the port. In Tel-Aviv to-day a Jewish military spokesman, Lieutenant-colonel Moshe Perlman, invited reporters, to go down to the Negev to see for themselves that there were no clashes there. “All our units are within Israeli territory,” he said. “We have not crossed the frontier and we have no intentions of doing so. We have no

jordan side of the border. Some of the Jewish troops succeeded in penetrating eight kilometres into Transjordan territory before they were forced back. A British spokesman in Cairo said to-day that no steps were being taken to alter the size of the British garrison in Akaba as a ’result of the reported Jewish troop movements.. Meanwhile at Rhodes the United Nations mediator, Dr Ralph Bunche, warned Israel and Transjordan that he would charge them with a breach of the Security Council’s cease-fire resolution if'either carried on military activities in the Akaba area. Dr Bunche ordered his personal representative, Dr Paul Mohn, to flv to Akaba to-morrow to investigate the position.