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Jewish Convoy Battling for Third Day to Reach Jerusalem with Food; 79 Arabs Killed

April 4, 1948
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Using a heavy concentration of mortars, Arab bands today attacked the settlements of Beth Alpha, Hetziba and Zeraim, in the Beisan Valley, east of Haifa, and Bet Yam, near Tel Aviv. In all cases the marauders were thrown back before they had inflicted more than minor injuries to a few Jews. The Haganah itself carried out a series of actions against Arab concentrations in the Haifa area.

Very little news is available of a Jewish convoy of more than 70 trucks which is fighting for the third day to break through Arab roadblocks and ambushes in the Bab el Wad area to reach Jerusalem where food is desperately needed. The Haganah has clamped down a news blackout to protect the convoy. One report today said that a new attempt to crash through the Arab gun positions failed and the convoy again withdrew, after a heavy loss of life to both sides.

A Haganah broadcast last night said that 79 Arabs, mostly Iraqi, were killed in an engagement with a Haganah force attempting to open the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem road from the Jerusalem approaches. Two Jews and six Arabs were killed and three Jews and two Arabs were seriously wounded in a heavy exchange of fire between adjoining districts in Jaffa and Tel Aviv.

Drs. Emanuel Neumann and Israel Goldstein, of the Z.O.A., are among 12 members of the Zionist Actions Committee who arrived in Tel Aviv today in preparation for a special meeting of the body, which opens Sunday. At a news conference Dr. Neumann declared that the Jews of America were shocked and angered by the U.S. reversal on partition. American Jewry, he emphasized, is ready to make every sacrifice and will stand “shoulder to shoulder” with Palestine’s Jews in their fight for independence and freedom.

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