The president of the Haifa Moslem Council was fatally wounded today and four other Arabs and three Jews injured as disorders in Palestine entered their twenty-fourth week.
Haj Khalil Taha was shot in the back as he entered the office of the Moslem Council in Haifa and died soon afterward. He was president of the Haifa National Committee, manager of an Arab bank and one of Palestine’s wealthiest manufacturers.
The assassination was attributed to factional differences among the Arabs. Taha was a supporter of the Grand Mufti, Haj Amin el Husseini. (The Havas News Agency said the assassin escaped.)
Several clashes were reported as Arab bands continued to raid Arab villages, demanding money and food.
A band raiding the Christian quarter of Safed stole $750 in cash and $1,250 in jewelry from an Arab Christian. In the neighboring village of Birl almost all the inhabitants were robbed. An Arab was seriously injured in a clash in Bin Zeitung.
Villagers in the vicinity of Jaffa sent a delegation to the Arab Strike Committee demanding protection.
Isaac Cohen, a baker, was seriously injured in a bomb explosion in Tel Aviv. An explosion at the Jerusalem railway station slightly injured a Jew. Four Bedouins slightly wounded a Jewess at Kibut Machar near Macdiel.
Three Arabs were wounded when a band of twenty attacked the police station at Beit Dagan.
SATURDAYS DEVELOPMENTS
The Arab Supreme Committee, at a special meeting, yesterday protested against the all-night detention of Mayor Sulemin Bey Tukan of Nablus on the roof of British military headquarters there.
He was taken into custody, it was established, as a hostage to prevent any shooting or sniping by rebels. The mayor was sent home in the morning, where he was received with demonstrations and cheering by his constituents.
An Arab band entered a house in the village of Alkhadr, shot and fatally wounded the householder after its demands for money had been rejected. A posse of villagers set out in pursuit.
Six houses in Jaba, two in Kalkillia and two in Akar was demolished by troops as a punitive measure for terrorism.
An unconfirmed Arab report said Fausi El Kaukadji, Syrian rebel leader who recently joined Arab forces, had been slightly wounded by British troops which surrounded a village that was entertaining him. The warrior managed to elude the cordon and escape into the hills, the report said.
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