The first new violent death in a week was reported today when Arabs halted three trucks laden with vegetables at Kalkillia, killed one Arab and burned one truck as the general strike against Jews continued in various parts of the country.
Two Arab merchants in Haifa were stabbed by Arabs for refusing to obey strikes orders. As tension was heightened, Jewish-owned shops and factories in mixed quarters of Haifa were closed and it was expected that Jerusalem, Jaffa and Haifa traffic would be suspended.
Disastrous fires of incendiary origin continued to break out in various parts of Palestine. The greatest fire witnessed in the Holy Land in recent years today destroyed the storage warehouse at Hedera, in the Plain of Sharon, of the Palestine Fruit Company, large exporters of citrus products. Damage was estimated at $50,000.
Arabs were believed responsible for the blaze, but no arrests have been made. The fire today is the climax of a long series of incendiary blazes that in the last two weeks have destroyed Jewish homes, shops, fields and forests.
Despite the fact that the warehouse is close to the railway station at Hedera, the building was razed to the ground before the fire brigade arrived.
New bombings were reported in Jaffa. A bomb exploded near the Jaffa court house, in which a group of Jews are being tried for participation in the Tel Aviv demonstration of April 17. No casualties were reported, but windows were smashed in many nearby houses. Another bomb exploded in the Jewish section of Jaffa known as the Warsaw Dwellings.
OLD JERUSALEM HEAVILY GUARDED BY POLICE
Arab groups patrolled Old Jerusalem to prevent stores from reopening. The section was carefully guarded by British policemen stationed at every ten meters on David Street. Two Arabs were stabbed in Jaffa when they attempted to open their shops and were removed to the Government hospital.
Police units in Jaffa, confiscating a number of Arab automobiles, forced many Arabs into them, and took them to pick up nails and broken glass strewn by Arabs along the main roads to obstruct traffic by puncturing tires.
A delegation from Jewish colonies which demanded additional measures for security was told by the District Commissioner in Haifa that he could not at present organize a special watch for Jewish fields and groves but that he might institute collective punishment for villages which were hiding Arab incendiaries.
Military authorities prohibited Jewish police in Tel Aviv from crossing the city borders, while Jewish police and secret agents in neighboring Jaffa were ordered not to leave the barracks or police stations without special permits on pain of disciplinary action.
NO JEWS AT WAILING WALL
For the first time in many years not a single Jew could be found today at the Western Wall of the ancient temple, holy to the Jews as the Wailing Wall. The usual prayers were not being conducted there because a “minyan,” the ten men required by Jewish law for group prayer, has not been available for eight days.
Seven Arabs were arrested for throwing bombs at the Jaffa railway station yesterday. Two of them were found with explosives. The rumor that Jews would set fire to mosques today stirred excitement in Jaffa last night and increased police patrols were required to disperse the crowds.
An official communique said that nine Arabs were wounded, one of them seriously, and seven policemen injured during a demonstration in Jerusalem last night. The communique said Arabs fired many shots at the police from an Arab cafe at the Damascus gate, near the Government offices, forcing the police to reply with gunfire.
Two Arabs were arrested in connection with an incendiary fire that yesterday swept twenty-five dunams of land in Balfouria, the colony named after Lord Balfour. The entire forest named after the author of the Jewish homeland proclamation was reported destroyed.
The Government officially denied reports in Arab newspapers that twenty additional Jewish policemen were to be appointed in Tel Aviv.
JEWS EVACUATE MIXED QUARTERS
Jews residing in mixed-quarters of Jerusalem, yesterday evacuated their homes and were quartered in the Yeshiva Etz Chaim, a religious school. The school was placed under heavy guard.
In an effort to paralyze Haifa harbor activities, the Arab National Strike Committee succeeded in inducing 100 laborers to drop work, an official communique reported.
About 2,000 Jewish refugees yesterday returned to their homes in suburbs midway between Jaffa and Tel Aviv. Some 7,000 still remain in Tel Aviv, being cared for by the city and by private persons.
To spare Jews the necessity of going to Jaffa to register land operations, provisional registration offices were established in Tel Aviv.
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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.
