British troops today tightened their cordon around Tel Aviv throwing up new entrenchments and gun posts in strategic spots both inside and outside the city.
Meanwhile, Mayors Israel Rokach of Tel Aviv and Joseph Saphir of Petach Tikvah were summoned to a conference with the military commander of the Tel Aviv area on security measures. The results of the conference were not made public.
In Jerusalem the Stern Group announced that it had smuggled in the hand grenades which Moshe Barazani and Meir Feinstein used to commit suicide in prison. The announcement said that the two extremists planned to blow themselves up on the scaffold, together with the guards and executioner, but changed their minds at the last minute when Rabbi Jacob Goldman, prison chaplain, insisted on accompanying them to the gallows.
The Sternists also admitted responsibility for the raids on a military convalescent camp at Nathanya and for yesterday’s wrecking of a train south of Rehovoth. They accused British and Arab police of torturing two Arabs reporsed hired to stage a mock argument in a military hospital here, covering the escape of Geula Cohen, woman Sternist. Although they insisted that the Arabs were not connected with the escape and were not members of the organization, they threatened that “those responsible for the torture of innocent Arab citizens will pay heavily for their crimes,”
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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.