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Arab Attack on Tel Aviv Outskirts Flung Back by Haganah After Fierce Battle

December 9, 1947
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A well armed and well trained Arab band which late this evening launched an attack on forward positions of the Haganah in the Hatikvah quarter of Tel Aviv was beaten off following a fierce battle which lasted more than an hour. The total number of casualties is still not known.

Before they were flung back, the Arabs advanced several hundred yards and ##ed a few huts in the Jewish quarter. Haganah reinforcements rushed to the scence as flares soared into the skies from the fighting zone summoning additional men. Withering fire swept every foot of the battleground. Before they went over to the offense, the Jews put up a savage resistance forcing the raiders to slow up and eventually halted them. Many inhabitants, old Yemenite Jewish men and women, making their way from the battle zone toward the center of the city, spread panic when they entered movie theatres, interrupting the performances and demanding that everyone hurry and join the battle. Flames shooting upwards from the burning buildings tended to sow more confusion.

The panic among inhabitants of the area resulted in additional injuries. A number of persons were hurt running about in the pitch-black streets, which are ###tly narrow, curving alleys. Some 6,000 to 8,000 persons live in the Hatikvah section.

A British soldier was killed and a second wounded when a convoy which they were escorting was brought under fire by Arabs in the Jaffa suburb of Abu Kebir. The envoy, which arrived in Tel Aviv late in the day, originated at Sarafand.

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