A new Jewish campaign to clear the highways of Arab roadblocks and ambushes and also to disrupt and harry Arab traffic on the roads around Jerusalem and between that city and the main coastal cities and towns has been put into effect during the last 24 hours.
At least one Arab was killed and eleven wounded today when an Arab-chauffeured bus hit a landmine on the road between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. The truck was overturned and severely damaged. Hear Beersheba three Arabs were killed when they attacked a group of Jews.
Seven Arabs died last night in the Tel Aviv vicinity, as a result of Haganah attacks to clear the highways of Arab raiders and Arab traffic and an attack on the Jaffa boundary. Three of the Arabs died when the Hagansh attacked Yazur, scene of a bloody ambush last week, while an Arab truck driver was shot in his cab. In addition, two men were killed and several men, women and children injured in a Jaffa house when a bomb which one of the men was handling went off prematurely.
On the coastal road between Haifa and Tel Aviv, where the fighting had been less intense previously, Haim Sher, 32, was killed by Arabs. The settlement of Bnei Geulim, south of Haifa, was attacked this morning for the second time is twelve hours, but the raiders were beaten off. At Ein Zeitim, north of Safad, a two-hour attack was repulsed by the Jewish militia. In the Arab quarter of Haifa, British treeps arrested 23 Arabs and confiscated a huge store of arms found in the same house, which was said to be an Arab gang’s operational headquarters.
U.S. CONSULATE INSTALLS RADIO FACILITIES FOR DIRECT REPORTS TO WASHINGTON
The wife and daughter of American Consul General Robert Macatee and the families of five other American consular officials today arrived in Haifa where they boarded the Italian liner Saturnia for the United States. The trip from Jerusalem was carried out with secrecy and speed, and the Americans were guarded by armored police ears and a Bren gun carrier.
The American Consulate has installed a short wave radio transmitter on its premises in order to transmit daily reports of the situation in Palestine to the State Department. This makes it unnecessary to use British telegraph and radio facilities or the slower diplomatic mail pouches for immediate reporting of spot developments.
A week-long census of all Jewish doctors in Jerusalem has begun as part of the campaign for the emergency mobilization of all Jewish medical men by the Jewish Medical Association. Registration has also began for courses in first aid, under the sponsorship of the Medical Association, Hadassah and the Red Shield Organization.
A Haganah source, commenting on yesterday’s battle between a Jewish convoy guard and a strong force of Arabs, estimated by some to have numbered 300 men, declared that the battle definitely proved the Jews’ superior military training and equipment. He pointed out that the Jewish unit of 25 men was able to stand its ground for seven hours and continuously hold the initiative although the enemy was operating in a friendly terrain from previously prepared positions.
The same source asserted that British troops who arrived on the battle scene late last night opened fire indiscriminately and killed at least four Jews before the battle ended. Later, the British covered a Jewish party which went into an Arab held sector to recover the bodies of their comrades. The Jews lost nine men, according to the Haganah count, one lieutenant and a corporal and seven privates in the militia organization.
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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.
