Jewish Resistance Movement in Palestine Announces Mobilization to Break Blockade

The Haganah radio “Voice of Israel,” announced today that the Jewish underground is mobilizing all its forces to break the British blockade against Jewish immigration into Palestine. The broadcast appealed to the “democratic peoples” of the world for assistance in combatting the deportation of refugees.

At the same time, the magazine “Hamaas,” the organ of the Stern Group, warned that wholesale assassinations of British officials in Palestine will result if the 18 members of the group sentenced to death last week are executed. The victims will be chosen from members of the Administration, the police and Criminal Investigation Department and any armed Briton, the publication said.

The parents of the 18 doomed youths appealed today to High Commissioner Sir Alan Cunningham to grant them reprieves. In a memorandum submitted to the High Commissioner, the parents said that several of the youths are the only children in the family while others are the sole survivors of families which were murdered by the Nazis. A delegation of parents also called on the Histadruth central committee, which promised to appeal to Jewish leaders in America to intervene.

Tel Aviv, which had been free of the bomb scares that have been plaguing Jerusalem official offices for the last week, had its first such warning today. The Northern police station was hurriedly evacuated after a telephoned warning that it was to be blown up. Police cordoned off the building and searched it for one hour without finding any explosives.

(An Exchange Telegraph dispatch from Tel Aviv received tonight in London said that “curfew panic” had broken out in the all-Jewish city, after rumors began circulating that the “third phase” of British military operations was to begin at dawn. People are reported to have stormed food shops in order to buy up provisions to tide them over a curfew period.)