Four Arabs were killed and 18 others wounded today in a bomb explosion near the Jaffa Gate here as British troops and sailors massed to check spread of arab-Jewish clashes which have produced nearly two score fatalities and more than 100 casualties in three days.
A Jewish girl and two boys, accused of throwing the bomb, were detained by the police. Curfew, in effect here since Monday, was extended to 12 hours, starting at 6 p.m.
A tense Haifa, where 28 deaths resulted from a bombing and a pitched street battle Wednesday, meanwhile saw 600 fully-equipped, steel-helmeted British sailors from the cruiser Emerald land and immediately occupy strategic danger points in the city. Earlier in the day Arab crowds set fire to a Jewish shop on Market Street and wounded three Jews in attacks on passersby with stones and iron bars.
Arabs launched general strikes throughout the country in protest against the out-breaks. The strikes were effective in Acre, Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarem and Jaffa, all predominantly Arab centers.
Late yesterday British frontier forces clashed with a band of 600 Arabs attempting to cross the Transjordan, killing five and wounding eight in a four-hour engagement. Part of the band is reported to have succeeded in crossing the frontier and hiding in the nearby hills.
Meanwhile, it was announced that two battalions of British troops have been ordered here from Egypt.
Ragheb Bey Nashashibi, head of the Palestine Defense Party, and Maghanem Farrag visited High Commissioner Sir Harold Alfred MacMichael to protest against the alleged killing of Arabs by Jews. Expressing abhorrence of the bloodshed, they asked for action against both Jewish and Arab lawbreakers.
Britain’s Palestine Partition Commission, inquiring into allegations that Jews had designs on Moslem holy places, heard the Chief Rabbinate in camera. Afterward the rabbinate announced that Chief Rabbi Isaac Herzog took occasion to deny the charge, adding that he had testified on religious affairs in the constitution of the proposed Jewish State.
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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.
