The savage fighting between Jews and Arabs which has been going on in Haifa for the past few days continued today, with nearly 20 persons killed.
The battle at besieged Kfar Etzion, between Jerusalem and Hebron, was renewed today as Arab forces ambushed a group of about 200 Jews sent to reinforce the settlers. This was the second group of Jewish fighters sent to the settlement today, the first consisting of some 800 men who went through unharmed. Jewish sources were reported tonight to be concerned about the column’s whereabouts.
At least l5 persons were believed to have been killed when the Haganah this morning blew up two Arab houses athwart one of the main traffic arteries of the city. The Arabs had been using the buildings as snipers’ posts and had succeeded in disrupting traffic to the Jewish quarters of the city. Three Jews in an armored bus were arrested in the vicinity shortly after the blast. They had guns and hand grenades in the vehicle. Several Jews were knifed to death by Arab hoodlums in Haifa streets.
WEIZMANN’S NEPHEW WAS PILOT OF PLANE WHICH AIDED KFAR ETZION SETTLERS
The pilot of the civilian plane which yesterday dropped medical supplies to beleaguered Jewish settlers at Kfar Etzion today surrendered to the Tel Avivppolice. He turned out to be Ezer Weizmann, nephew of the aged Zionist leader, Dr. Chaim Weizmann. Yesterday the British asserted that the plane had fired on a British reconnaissance plane, but Jewish sources denied this.
The official communique listing the casualties in today’s bombings at Haifa mentioned only nine women and children killed in the explosions. Jewish sources question the government’s reason for neglecting to mention the Arab men in the buildings. The Haganah today charged that the government was consistently minimizing Arab losses at the request of the Arab Higher Executive which feared that if the true Arab losses were given Arab volunteering would drop off.
The Haganah claimed that in yesterday’s action in Haifa 82 Arabs were killed and about 100 wounded and 10 Arab-owned buses were destroyed in a garage. The official listing of the casualties at Kfar Etzion, which the Haganah disputes, is that three Jews and eleven Arabs were killed and nine Jews and 24 Arabs were wounded.
At a press conference in Tel Aviv, Dr. Abba Hillel Silver, chairman of the American section of the Agency, pledged the aid of American Jews to the Palestine Jewish community and said that American Jewry favors the dispatch of an international police force to Palestine to implement the U.N. decision. He added that American Jews would like to see a united front among the Haganah, Irgun and the Stern Group.
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.
