Leaders of the 1,350 Jewish deportees from Palestine confined in the Caraolos camp here announced late today that all of the refugees will go on a hunger strike tomorrow morning to protest against the conditions under which they are being held.
The announcement climaxed a hectic day, during which the refugees demonstrated against the refusal of the camp authorities to allow them to speak to a group of correspondents who were taken on a tour of the camp area.
When the inmates spied the newsmen outside the barbed-wire surrounding the camp, they rushed to the gates led by a refugee who unfurled a blue-white Zionist flag he had secreted on his person. Guards fired into the air in an attempt to drive them from the gate, but the refugees remained there shouting: “Palestine, Palestine.”
A clash was averted when a Palestinian newspaperman spoke to the angry internees in Hebrew, and when the authorities announced that they would permit the correspondents to circulate among the deportees.
The Jews complained to the newspapermen that babies were not receiving enough milk, that pregnant women were not given proper medical care and that rations were inadequate. The camp commander said that everything possible was being done, but that the camp was still not fully equipped.
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