A large force of hundreds of Arab guerrilla fighters today renewed their attack on the Jewish settlement of Yechiam, in northern Palestine, where yesterday they killed nine Jews and lost at least seven of their own men, They were again repulsed.
Today the battle raged for six hours before British police arrived on the scene-too late to be of assistance. The Arab force, variously estimated at from 200 to 500 men, took up positions in trenches and sniping posts erected yesterday during the first attempt to overwhelm the settlement.
A detachment of Jews, whose size and affiliation is still unknown, attached the Arab villages of Turran and Lubia, in the Nazareth district. Reports from the latter village state that two car loads of Jews attacked it with heavy gunfire and bombs, killing at least one Arab and wounding several others. There were no casualty figures given for Turran.
The day’s battles in Jerusalem opened with two loud explosions that rocked several blocks in the Katamon quarter as the Haganah destroyed two houses used by the Arabs as sniping posts. Two other bombs exploded during the day, both in the vicinity of St. Stephens Gate to the Old City. The first went off accidentally while Arabs were attempting to place it, and the second was thrown by Arabs at a Jewish-chauffeured motor convoy. Neither was responsible for much damage.
Sniping continued throughout the day, with most of it concentrated in the notorious Sheikh Jarach quarter which dominates the main road up to Mt. Scopus. One Jew was killed there and several were wounded, Stray bullets wounded several more Jews various parts of the city. In the Nachlat Shimon quarter, a Jewish area facing Sheikh Jarach, police invaded a defense post and arrested 20 Haganah men.
In the Tel Aviv-Jaffa area, where sniping increased to an alarming extent today and a number of persons were wounded, the Haganah blew up ten Arab houses from which snipers were active. Most of the blasting occurred in the Manshieh quarter of Jaffa, which Juts into the Tel Aviv perimeter. Last night the Sternists blew up three Arab structures in the same area.
NEW MIXED JEWISH-ARAB POLICE FORCE TO BE ESTABLISHED IN JERUSALEM
The creation of a new mixed police force of Jews and Arabs for the municipality of Jerusalem to augment the force already in use, was announced tonight. The cost of the new force, which will consist of 300 Jews and 300 Arabs, will be shared equally by the Palestine Government and the Jerusalem municipality.
A government spokesman revealed that an amendment to the Emergency Defense Regulations, which will be published tomorrow, gives the military commander of any area the right to prescribe the place and time of burials. The same spokesman, asked by newspapermen why the British did not intervene in the Kfar Etzion battle last week which lasted more than a full day, replied that “apparently” the British did not have “sufficient strength to take part in the battle.”
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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.
