2 Jews, 3 Arabs Killed in Tel Aviv-jaffa Border Riots; Curfew Imposed

The Palestine Government tonight imposed a twelve-hour curfew on the boundary section between Tel Aviv and Jaffa in which two Jews and three Arabs were killed and five Jews and five Arabs wounded.

While bomb and rifle attacks continued, the authorities prohibited all civilian movements between six P.M. and six A.M. in the part of Tel Aviv from Allenby Road to the Jaffa boundary and in the adjacent sections of Jaffa.

Despite augmented police patrols and barbed-wire barricades, several bombs were thrown from Jaffa into Tel Aviv and rifle shots were fired. A military lorry patrolling the boundaries was fired upon from an Arab house, but none was hit. Troops fruitlessly searched the house and vicinity.

Both cities were in turmoil, remembering that the same area served as the spawning place for the 1936 disorders. A reporter touring the boundary districts saw mobs of thousands milling on both sides of the boundary until dispersed by volleys of shots fired into the air. Nearby houses were evacuated by both Jews and Arabs as police conducted intensive searches for terrorists.

The rioting began late yesterday when Arabs fired at Jews shopping for the Sabbath in the Carmel market. In the ensuing disorders two Jews were stabbed to death and five others suffered knife or bullet wounds. Three Arabs were killed and five others were wounded.

The Jewish dead are: Shlomo Sharabi, 25, stabbed by Arabs in a cafe; Nahum Ezra Gindi, 45, stabbed by two Arabs at the boundary. The wounded are: Noah Finkelstein, 21; Abraham Kisher, 19, both in serious condition; Arieh Rudikovsky, 24; Shimon Strikovsky, and Itzhak Cohen, slightly injured.

The authorities forbade local newspapers, both Arab and Hebrew, to place the blame for the rioting. A delegation from Jaffa’s Jewish quarters asked the protection of the Tel Aviv municipal authorities.

The death toll in Palestine disorders was raised by the murder of the Rev. Pietro Rossini, an Italian citizen, principal of a mission school near Jaffa, whose body was found near the school, beaten to death. Recently the school was looted and Father Rossini was severely beaten by a band of Arab terrorists.

Grave fears were felt over three Jewish youths kidnaped yesterday by an Arab band while driving a cart from the fields to Givat Ada, near Haifa. Police lost the trail of the abductors in the dark. The youths are David Frank, 24, who immigrated from Germany 18 months ago; Itzhak Krupik, 19, and David Averbuch, 14, both native Palestinians.

Major-General Robert H. Haining, commander-in-chief of British forces in Palestine, confirmed the death sentence passed by the Haifa military court on Shlomo Ben Josef, 22, for firing on an Arabs bus and carrying arms. General Haining at the same time commuted to life imprisonment the death sentence passed by the same court on Ben Josef’s companion, Abraham Shein, 20, because of his age. No date was fixed for Ben Josef’s execution.

Meanwhile, terrorism continued in other parts of Palestine. Arabs set fire to wheat fields at Mishmar Hayarden, laying down a barrage of rifle shots against Jews fighting the flames and seriously wounding Sergeant Hayim Zipori, 32, a special policeman. Other bands attacked the Jewish colonies of Rosh Pina, Mishmar Haemek and Kfar Hassidim, and uprooted 1,000 trees in a Jewish-owned grove near Kakun.

Two Jews were arrested by police when found with pistols in their possession in the vicinity of an attack on an Arab bus in Mikveh Israel, a Jerusalem suburb.

Adding menace to the general unrest following the newest outbreaks was spread of a strike in protest against Turkey’s occupation of Alexandretta, a disputed territory in northern Syria. The strike was complete in the “bloody triangle” area of Nablus, Jenin and Tulkarem. It was called by posters, bearing the signature of Youssef Abu Dath, leader of northern terrorist bands, which threatened death to all Arabs falling to comply. Similar posters have appeared in Haifa.