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Jews and Three Arabs Die As Attacks Continue on Jewish Interurban Traffic

December 23, 1947
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Attacks on Jewish road convoys and Haganah ##risals against Arab villages sheltering snipers and gurrilla bands continued today ## Palestine entered its fourth week of consecutive unrest since the U.N. decision on ##tition.At least three Jews and a like number of Arabs were killed today and more ##jured. The Jews included a nine-year-old boy, Amos Rosenzweig, who died from ##nds suffered when a bus on which he was travelling with his blind father was at##ked by Arab snipers as it passed Bat Yam, a coastal village just south of Jaffa. ##she Haze, 25, and Jacob Rosenberg, 60, also died from wounds suffered at Bat Yam which was the scene of a heavy Arab attack. Several persons were wounded.A Red Mogen David ambulance responding to the settlement’s call for aid was ##iven off by heavy fire and forced to return to Tel Aviv. The Haganah then sent ##inforcements to the village, and late reports said that severe casualties had been ##flicted upon the attackers. Three Arabs were killed by Haganah guards when a Jewish convoy proceeding from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem was attacked near Yazur, where yesterday Arabs dragged two Jews from an oil truck and stabbed them to death.The persistent attacks on Jewish interurban traffic today draw a demand from the Jewish Agency for a curfew on Arab towns, such as Yazur and Ramleh which are known to be the headquarters of the bands attempting to cut communications between jewish cities and settlements. An Agency spokesman said that the curfew should be maintained “for a few days, until things have quieted down.”

Arab sources reported that a number of Arab villages were attacked today by Haganah squads. One of the heaviest attacks was said to have been launched against ##afat, north of Jerusalem, where Haganah raiders were reported to have swept the streets with fire from automatic rifles. The reports, which were unconfirmed, at distributed the attacks to reprisals for attacks on Jewish convoys. It was pointed out that yesterday the Haganah distributed leaflets in Arabic, calling upon the Arab willagers to keep the peace, but warning that their homes would be attacked if they sheltered guerilla bands.

GOVERNMENT SAYS ARAB LEGION TROOPS WILL BE KEPT IN PALESTINE

The government issued a communique tonight reviewing the security situation since the outbreaks began, in which it stressed that the troops of King Abdullah’s Arab Legion and the Arab-manned Trans-Jordan Frontier Force would be kept in Palestine. “It is pointed out that as long as Jewish attacks against the British continue. the government must use all the forces at its disposal to protect its installations,” the communique said. It also denied reports that foreign aircraft have been flying over Palestine, stating that the only planes that are here belong either to the Royal Air Force or to civil air lines.

The communique said that between Nov. 29 and Dec. 18 the British seized from Jews 20 pistols, 18 Sten Guns, one Bren Gun, 13 rifles, more than 1,000 rounds of ?nition and a number of grenades and mortars. In the same period, they confisca? from Arabs 14 pistols, one Sten Gun, eight rifles, nearly 1,000 rounds of ammunity and 94 sticks of golignite. The secarity forces lost 323 rifles and 60,000 rounds of ammunition to Arab raiders. The communique noted that while the amount of ? taken from Jews exceeded that confiscated from Arabs, more Arabs were arrested ? illegal possession of arms than Jews. It explains this by stating that the Jews ? more arms than the Arabs.

ARAB SOURCES SAY PALESTINE EIGHER COMMITTEE GOT U.S. ARMS

Arab sources reported today that two days before the United States declared ? embargo on arms to the Middle East, a considerable quantity of American arms destined for Egypt and Iraq arrived in Damascus and was immediately turned over to the Palestine Arab Higher Committee.

Despite Arab statements that Palestine youths are being trained abroad for service against the Jews, it is learned that only 50 Arabs left the country to receive military training in neighboring states, but even these have returned, complaining that they were treated like “colonials” and received neither food nor arms, ?her Arab sources reported this week-end. The vast majority of the Arab youths have remained in their villages to defend them against possible Jewish attacks or to willy forth to raid Jewish settlements or traffic.

The Jerusalem district commissioner today notified the owners of premises inside Security Zone A, popularly known as Bevingrad, that their premises will soon ? returned, which indicates that the security zones are to be abolished. The central post office, which was moved outside the zone is returning, and police head-quarters which were transferred inside are being moved to barracks on Mt. Scopus.

Traffic between Tel Aviv and Lydda airport, and between Lydda and Haifa, which is virtually at a stand-still, will be greatly relieved by the inauguration of ? sky taxi service by the Aviron Company. An airline between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv will also be set up when the R.A.F. grants permission to the company to use the Kalandia airfield near Jerusalem.

SYRIAN PREMIER SAYS ARABS WILL SUBMIT PALESTINE ISSUE TO SECURITY COUNCIL

A dispatch from Damascus today quotes Syrian Premier Jamil Mardam Bey as stating that the Arab states have decided to submit the Arab-Jewish dispute in Palestine to the U.N. Security Council. Meanwhile, the Syrian Government has ordered all Palestine Jews to leave the country as soon as possible, but in no case later than Jan. 1.

King Abdullah’s intrigues with Palestine and Lebanese Arabs are apparently continuing. The Arab press reports that petitions are being circulated in Nablus realling on Abdullah to “protect the Arabs of Palestine.” The report says that the petitions will be submitted to Abdullah by a delegation which is now in the process of formation. A Beirut report reveals that a Lebanese delegation recently called on Abdullah to enlist his support for a “Christian National Home” in predominantly Christian Lebanon, when and if a greater Syria is formed.

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