Twenty-one persons, including 15 Arab rebels, four Jews and an Arab sheikh and police sergeant, were dead today following a battle, ambuscades and sniping which kept tension high over the week-end in Palestine.
British troops, reinforced by Jewish supernumeraries, engaged a large Arab band near Affuleh, killing 14 rebels and capturing 16 rifles and 300 rounds of ammunition. One of the slain Arabs was identified as the prominent Sheikh Taha, who was clad in a uniform bearing three stars, indicating major rank in the rebel forces.
Two Jews were killed and another was injured today in an attack on the Lydda railway station. An Arab walked in to the office of the Lydda junction and shot and wounded a clerk named Lipkin. Troops were called, and meanwhile a band invaded the station, killing the clerks Meir Benvenisti, 37, and Moshe Sternfeld, 35, inside the offices.
An Arab band ambushed two Jewish lorries near Zib, in the Acre subdistrict, killing Zvi Kipness, a driver, and burning one of the trucks. Miriam Lipshitz, 23, died of wounds suffered Aug. 20 during an attack in the tel Aviv-Jaffa boundary area.
Sheikh Achmed Daoud Ansari, a leading opponent of the exiled ex-Mufti of Jerusalem, was shot near police headquarters and died in the hospital. His assailant escaped. Sheikh Achmed had been twice previously wounded in attacks.
Arab police sergeant Farchad Khouri was shot dead by two terrorists in Jaffa. Terrorists later made an unsuccessful attempt on the life of Omar Bittar, a prominent anti-Mufti leader, as he sat in a Jaffa barber shop.
Jewish supernumeraries killed an Arab terrorist in repelling an attack on the Givat Brenner colony. A Jewish bus was shot at near Ramleh and the driver, David Stern, 38, was seriously wounded. In Haifa, terrorists shot and critically wounded Eliezer Azbach, a Jewish customs official.
A Talmud Torah (religious) school in the Neve Shaanan quarter between Jaffa and Tel Aviv was set afire after a rifle and bomb attack by terrorists. A fire brigade extinguished the Blaze. An Arab band ambushed a police patrol near Nablus, slightly wounding a british constable.
Messengers of rebel leader Abu Dura ran through Jaffa streets calling upon Arab youths to join the jehad (holy war) to expel unbelievers.
For the first time since the disorders began, two land mines were discovered in a Jerusalem suburb. They were connected by a wire which, if touched, would have set them off. A freight train was derailed between Ras-el-Ein and Kafr Ginnes. There were no casualties. Traffic was suspended for a day. Ten-hour curfew was declared for the entire railway line running through the southern district, for a distance of 2,000 meters on each side.
A Government communique announced the capture of an “important” terrorist leader, without disclosing his identity.
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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.
