British forces today moved into Jerusalem’s Old City in the first step of their newly-launched campaign to reconquer sections of Palestine under rebel sway preparatory to announcement by Britain of its policy for settlement of the Holy Land problem.
Royal Air Force planes prepared the way by dropping circulars warning residents to remain indoors on pain of being shot on sight, then steel-helmeted troops supported by police advanced into the area, and by tonight virtually all of the Old City was under British control, except for the Mosques of Omar and el Aksa, where a number of Arabs were believed to be trapped.
Nine Arabs, one of them a woman, were unofficially reported to have been killed in the operation. The only casualties among the British forces were three soldiers and one policeman wounded. Mopping up operations were expected to take several more days.
The military occupation came as the situation in the Old City was becoming desperate. Last night there was danger of a food shortage, especially in the Jewish quarter, because of constant shooting, the strict curfew and suspension of trade and cattle slaughtering. Some Jewish inhabitants fled to the New City. Today Jewish relief organizations, under military protection, rushed food supplies to the Jews trapped in the Old City.
At dawn the warplanes soared over the Old City to drop the leaflets warning inhabitants indoors. Then a battalion of the Coldstream Guards, supported by detachments of the Northumberland Fusiliers and a strong contingent of police, swung into action, successively occupying the Christian, Jewish and Armenian quarters before entering the Moslem quarter.
Next the British moved into the Moslem quarter, first cutting off roads to the mosques to forestall rebels’ attempts to seek sanctuary in the holy places. Nevertheless, a number of Arabs, apparently using the ages old maze of subterranean tunnels, managed to reach the Mosque of Omar. There was no information tonight on the whereabouts of Hamad Madawai, the reputed commander of the Arabs.
Arabs suffered heavily in clashes with the British forces, as heavy guards at the Old City walls and gates barred their escape from the troops closing in on them. Many were wounded as the troops followed their orders to shoot on sight anyone venturing into the streets. The wounded were taken to the Government hospital.
Meanwhile two officers of the Jewish self-defence corps and another Jew were killed in attacks in other parts of the country. The dead were Abraham Cohen, 31, Palestine-born district inspector of Jewish defenses and his assistant, Meir Averbuch, killed in ambush near Rishon-le-Zion. Dov Yavidovitz, 42, and also a Palestine native, was killed by bullets fired from a speeding Arab taxicab on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.
Arabs attacked a Palestine Potash Company convoy en route from the Dead Sea to Jerusalem wounding two Jewish workers. Three Jews were injured in attacks on automobiles travelling from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
