Inciting Proclamations Against Palestine Jewry Issued by Arab Leaders

British troops were engaged in a fierce battle last night near Gaza with a Bedouin tribe. Several of the Bedouins were killed and wounded.

Bedouins yesterday raided the herds of the Jewish settlement Meshka, in Galilec. The troops intervened promptly, returning the loot.

Inciting proclamations were disseminated last night in Jerusalem by the Arabs. The proclamation, bearing the signature of a “Committee Which Wants War”, called upon the Arabs to “exterminate all Jews and to destroy all Jewish homes and other property.”

More arrests were made among the members of the Jewish self-defense body.

Skirmishes between the British troops and the rioters continue in Northern Palestine. The Jewish settlement Kfar Tabor was attacked and the cattle taken by the raiders. Twelve Arabs were killed by the troops when they repelled the attack on the settlement Hittin, Galilee. A new attack on the Jerusalem Jewish suburb, Talpioth, was likewise repulsed by the troops. The troops continue their searches for loot and arms.

Jewish settlers who were in possession of arms in the colony Yavneel, 16 kilometers south of Tiberias, were arrested.

While the Arab leaders continued to be indignant over the proclamation of the High Commissioner condemning the atrocities, sending telegrams and cables of protest against the proclamation, the Jews of Palestine were today in mourning for the victims of the massacres. As the day was observed as a fast day, the synagogues throughout Palestine were overcrowded with worshippers who came to recite the lamentations of Jeremiah and the other rituals prescribed for Tisha B’Ab, commemorating the destruction of Jerusalem.

Before the prayers were started in the Jerusalem Synagogue, the Jerusalem Kehillah despatched a cabled message to the University of Oxford and to the British press expressing Palestine Jewry’s appreciation for the valiant action of 40 Oxford students who happened to have been on a tour in Palestine and who risked their lives to join the Jewish youth in Jerusalem in defending the population against the Moslem attacks.

The Jerusalem office of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency was officially informed by the American Consul here, Paul Knabenshue, that the American students at the Haifa High school, the Realshule, who have been on a bicycle tour in Northern Palestine, have all been returned safely to Haifa from Metulla where they were in danger.

An attempt to photograph the mutilated bodies of the Hebron massacre victims was checked by the authorities, who prohibited the taking of such photographs.

Dr. Yaski, a member of the Hadassah Medical Staff who returned from Safed, reported that the houses to which the Arabs set fire are still smouldering. The odor suggests that a great many victims may be among the ruins.

Eye witnesses are horror stricken at the sight of the dismembered bodies of the victims. One woman was found burnt, tied to a window grill. A child called out to a visitor: “Come see my slain father and mother.”