Renewed Arab attempts to attack Tel Aviv were checked today by a Haganah counter-attack in which nine Arabs were wounded. The attack was started by Arab guerrillas from the Salameh quarter on the outskirts of Jaffa. One Jew was seriously injured and one slightly in the ensuing battle.
It was officially announced today that negotiations among religious leaders to proclaim the Old City in Jerusalem an open city are continuing. They were postponed for a short time because the government representative, who is serving as mediator, is ill, the announcement said.
An Arab gang today attacked the children’s settlement, Ben Shemen, located near Lydda. The Jews repulsed the attackers, killing one and wounding several Arabs. Two Arabs were killed in a fight with Jews near Wilhelmina.
The Palestine Government today closed all the bridges between Transjordan and Palestine, excepting the Allenby Bridge, as part of measures taken to keep a check on the country’s frontiers. At the same time all Yugoslav ships were ordered not to unload their cargo in Tel Aviv, but at the Haifa port instead. The Yugoslav consul has filed a protest with the Palestine authorities against the order.
SIXTEEN HAGANAH MEMBERS SENTENCED; DEFENDED JERUSALEM AND TEL AVIV
Sixteen members of the Haganah, including a girl, were sentenced today to three months imprisonment. Most of them were arrested during the Arab attacks in the Jaffa-Tel Aviv border area or in the Old City here.
In Tel Aviv, an attempt by members of the Stern Group to kidnap Police Inspector Shlomo Bernstein for allegedly contacting agents of the Criminal Investigation Division was foiled today by neighbors whose shouts frightened away the would-be abductors. At the same time the Irgun announced that it has kidnapped two of its wounded members from Yarkon Hospital in Tel Aviv. They had been arrested for “murder and carrying arms.”
A government spokesman told a press conference today that the Palestine Government has allowed Syria to send ten uniformed soldiers to guard the Syrian Consulate. The guards may carry only small arms, and must keep their bigger automatic weapons in locked boxes. He said the same ruling applies to ten Saudi Arabians, l4 Egyptians and 20 Lebanese soldiers sent here to guard their respective consulates. The Iraqi and Transjordan consulates are being guarded by members of the Arab Legion.
The spokesman also disclosed that the Foreign Office still has not received a reply to its note to the Syrian Government protesting the invasion of northern Palestine from Syria.
TRUMAN WILL NOT PERMIT SCUTTLING OF U.N. DECISION, SILVER BELIEVES
The belief that President Truman and Secretary of State Marshall would not allow their subordinates to scuttle the U.N. decision on Palestine which they supported, was expressed here today by Dr. Abba Hillel Silver at a press conference prior to his return to the United States.
Dr. Silver, who conferred with the High Commissioner yesterday, attended a final session of the Agency in Tel Aviv.
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