JEWS ATTACK PRISON

Wanganui Chronicle, 6 May 1947, Page 5

JEWS ATTACK PRISON

MANY PRISONERS FREED TERRORIST BODY CLAIMS FULL RESPONSIBILITY Reed. 7.30 pan. Jerusalem, May 5 In Palestine during the weekend deaths total 15, including 14 Jews. One Arab and four Jewish prisoners and three Jewish attackers were killed in a prison break at Acre and five Jews in an ambush near Haifa. In addition, troops searching a jeep and military truck near Acre found two dead, three injured and seven uninjured Jews. 216 PRISONERS STILL FREE The prison break occurred in Ac"e, when Jewish terrorists attacked the prison with bombs and gunfire. More than 300 prisoners escanod as the result of the attack and 216 are still at liberty. One Jew escapee was under sentence of death for the murder of his sister and 37 of them were under life sentences. About 100 Irgun gangsters, including four women in A.T.S. uniform, participated in the attack. The police said explosives placed inside helped to breach the wall. One terrorist killed in the attack was wearing the uniform of a Royal Engineers captain. The army has cut telephone communication with Acre and patrols have stopped all road traffic. Troops have cordoned four Jewish settlements east of Acre and planned to search them in daylight. Troops patrolled the Lebanese border to prevent Arab escapees entering Lebanon. OFFICIAL STATEMENT It is officially stated that 251 Jew and Arab prisoners, including 80 Jew terrorists, escaped in the prison break. While the terrorists were assaulting Acre prison, other Jews attacked six airborne divisions in a camp north of Acre to prevent reinforcements reaching the gaol. The terrorists hurled five mortar bombs into the camp. Troops of the Sixth Airborne Division opened fire on two truckloads of Jews. Two Jews were killed and six captured. One British policeman and five British soldiers were injured in both attacks. It is reported that terrorists near Haifa ambushed and fired on a party of British troops returning from a bathing parade. An official announcement on the deaths says 11 Jewish deaths include five Jews killed when British troops returned the fire of the terrorists who ambushed the party after its bathing parade near Haifa, also six Jews were killed in the prison break comprising four escaping prisoners and two terrorist attackers. It is established that two jeep loads of terrorists drove into Acre, occupied Turkish baths backing on to the prison wall, and planted four high explosive charges. The terrorists then hurled a diversionary grenade into the prison, slightly wounding one British prison official and a number of criminal lunatics. There were 550 prisoners in gaol before the terrorists liberated 251, who comprised 120 Jews (80 of them terrorists) and 131 Arabs. The Irgun Zvai Leumi, in a statement to the Jewish Press, announced: “We liberated our prisoners of war.” The strictest security precautions were operating throughout Palestine as police and troops hunted the escaped convicts. BRITISH TROOPS AND POLICE MOBILISED Recd. 10.50 p.m. Jerusalem, May 5 British troops and police have been mobilised throughout Palestine to track down the escaped prisoners. The troops have order s to shoot without warning at any vehicle failing to answer a challenge to halt. The British United Press correspondent says one of the most startling features of the attack is that the terrorists stole Army lorries parked near the prison and turned them over to escaping prisoners . The Irgun Zvai Leumi issued a statement: “Our commandos successfully completed the operation with small losses and have returned to their bases.