Arab-jewish Clashes in Tel Aviv-jaffa Area Continue; Three Jews, One Arab Killed

The sporadic clashes between Jews and Arabs in the border area of Tel Aviv and Jaffa went into the fourth day today with a number of pitched battles fought in various Arab and Jewish quarters. The violence, the worst since the Arab riots of 1936-39, claimed the lives of three Jews and one Arab, left 46 persons wounded and resulted in property damage amounting to more than $400,000.

One of the day’s major engagements was fought near the Arab village of Abu Kebir, on the outskirts of Jaffa, when an Arab mob threw up road blocks and halted buses and private cars carrying Jewish passengers. The passengers were hauled out of their vehicles and beaten and knifed. Two Jews, Benjamin Rosenberg and Yechiel Itmann, died as a result of stab wounds.

While the mob stoned buses and abused the passengers, a number of Arabs with tommyguns and Sten guns held off Jewish rescuers for a short time. They also sprayed the Jews stopped at the barricades. Beside the two dead, 16 other Jews were wounded. The Jewish reinforcements finally broke through — well before police arrived on the scene, 45 minutes after the attack began. One Arab was killed and three were wounded in the battle.

All southbound traffic from Tel Aviv was suspended today after an attack on Jews near Holon, three miles south of Tel Aviv. One Jew was seriously wounded and several hurt less critically when an Arab gang opened fire on passers-by.

ARABS SET JEWISH FACTORY AFIRE; AMERICAN JEW KILLED

Another Arab band set fire to a textile factory and a lumber yard in one of the outlying districts of Tel Aviv. The blaze which burned for many hours, spread to adjoining stores and buildings. A group of Jews set fire to Arab market stalls in a section of Jaffa which juts into the Jewish city.

Several wooden huts in Tel Aviv’s Maccabee quarter were put to the torch by an invading gang of Arabs who also fired a number of shots at the inhabitants. The fire was returned and the Arabs fled. A truck was fired by invading Arabs in the Hatikvah section and the truck driver, Ahron Hanowitze, was killed, after which his truck was burned. Hanowitze, who was 26 years old, was an American citizen living with his wife, who is expecting a child shortly, and his parents at Paudes Hanna. He was a veteran of the U.S. Army and fought with the Seventh Army in the Pacific Theatre.

It was learned that the Haganah had dispatched a number of armed police units to various parts of Tel Aviv. This explained the quick dispersal of Arab attackers in many areas. The police were so slow in arriving on the scene of fighting that newspaper correspondents and other observers commented on it. On roads which previously had swarmed with military vehicles searching for extremists, troop patrols could not be found for hours at a time.

The official casualty lists, besides mentioning the four dead, broke down the figure of thos wounded as follows: three Jews and seven Arabs wounded seriously;

A body of a dead Arab was found in an orange grove three miles from Tel Aviv last night. It was reported that he was executed by the Haganah for having been involved in the attack on a Tel Aviv cafe Sunday night which touched off the wave of conflicts. Itzhak Grinberg, who was stabbed in Jaffa yesterday, died in a hospital during the night.

A police patrol in Haifa last night shot and killed Aholeab Battan, a 19-year-old Jewish youth. The official announcement declared that he failed to halt when challenged.

JEWISH NATIONAL COUNCIL WARNS AGAINST PROVOCATION

The Jewish National Council today issued a statement calling on the Jews to beware of provocation and not to give way to panic. It also urged the Jews not to be dragged into street fighting. At the same time, the Council sharply pointed out to the government that it was responsible for restoring and maintaining order.

The Irgun, commenting on the Arab attacks, charged the British with continuing their "quarter-century old policy of stirring up trouble" to keep the Arabs and Jews at each other’s throats. For this reason, the extremist organization said, it would continue to fight the British rather than the Arabs.

It was learned today that Mahmud Labib, Arab military organizer and henchman of the ex-Mufti of Jerusalem, will be expelled to Egypt, his native land, despite many pleas from various Arab sources. Labib was ordered out of the country for allegedly being implicated in Sunday’s attack on the Tel Aviv night club.

The Palestine Government has released a statement by the Government of Cyprus that the British decision to discontinue the use of British ships to transport Jewish internees from the island to Palestine does not mean that the transfer of the visaless immigrants to Palestine has ceased. The Cypriot administration apparently issued the statement to counteract fears among the island’s population that the Jews will be kept there permanently.