Arabs Renew Attack on Settlement Near Haifa; Jews Consolidate Position at Castel

After an uneasy lull of several days some 1,500 Arab troops under the command of Fawzi el Kaukuji, supreme Arab military leader, to day renewed their attack on Mishmar Haemek, east of Haifa, which commands the approach to the Plain of Esdralon.

In a day-long battle, the Arabs succeeded temporarily in driving a wedge into the Jewish defense lines and capturing a hill overlooking the settlement. Artillery was soon crashing shells into the colony, but fierce Jewish counterattacks forced the guerrillas to draw back their guns to avoid capture. As the day ended most of the Arab wedge had been pinched off and the damage to Jewish defense positions largely repaired.

The “battle of the highways” several-week-old campaign for control of Jerusalem-Tel Aviv main road today seemed definitely to be turning in favor of the Jews. In a move to solidify their position in the Arab village of Castel, from which they had once been driven out last week, the Haganah invaded and captured the Arab village of Qalonia, on Castel’s a flank. In searching the village the Jews found huge stores of ammunition and explosives and with the dynamite blasted every position and building in Qalonia.

In several other mopping-up operations the Jews managed to push the entire Arab perimeter about Castel back so far that shells from Arab mortars and small artillery cannot reach the stronghold. A Jewish convoy is reported to be nearing Jerusalem with reinforcements and arms.

JERUSALEM SHELLED BY ARAB ARTILLERY; THREE JEWS KILLED

Jerusalem was quiet today after being shelled yesterday by Arab batteries of two-pounders, 75 millimeter guns and 105 millimeter howitzers. The guns, brought from Jenin where Kaukuji’s headquarters are located, arrived in the Jerusalem area after passing through the British lines without being molested. One report stated that the British sent a delegation of officers to the Arabs to “advise” them against shelling Jerusalem, which had never been shelled previously by heavy artillery. Three Jews were killed and several others wounded by the shells.

Paid service between Palestine and Egypt was interrupted today. The Haganah this week-end drove off an Arab force, including Egyptian volunteers, which assaulted the settlement of Darom. In the north, the Jews finally routed Syrian troops which had been attacking Lahavoth Habashan for nearly a week. A Jewish Agency spokesman today insisted that the Arabs had failed to obtain military victories at Castel, Mishmar Haemek and Lahavoth Habashan on which they had banked to give heavy political support to their representative at Lake Success.

A Jewish central authority, which will assume the functions and responsibilities formerly held by the Jewish Agency and the Jewish national Council, will be proclaimed sometime this week, it was decided by the Zionist Committee. The authority, which will be established after its form is worked out by the Actions Committee, “Will be proclaimed as the government of Jewish Palestine after May 15.