The Israeli Government announced today that as of July 1 military administration of the three former Arab cities of Jaffa, Lydda and Ramleh will be terminated.
A government spokesman today branded as “fantastic” charges made by Maj. Gen. John Glubb Pasha, former commander of the Arab legion, that Israeli forces were planning a coup to dislodge Arab Legion garrisons in the Latrun area astride the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway.
The spokesman also said that the Israeli Government had received no reports of sniping in that area which Glubb Pasha asserted had been carried out in an attempt to provoke the Arab forces. (At Lake Success, acting U.N, Palestine mediator Dr. Ralph J. Bunche said he had no reports of sniping from U.N, observers and no reports of preparations by Israeli forces for a coup.)
Referring to the withdrawal of Israeli Army forces from the neutralized Government House area in Jerusalem and their replacement by Israeli civilian police, the Israeli spokesman said that this change-over was effected at the request of the United Nations.
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.