Food convoys for Jews in the Old City of Jerusalem ?ere being halted today by the British for the sixth successive day, cutting off several thousand Jews there from bread and other food supplies despite the Arab-Jewish truce prevailing in the area.
The action was taken by the British as punishment for the alleged theft by Jews of two rifles and three pistols. At the same time British military authorities today ordered the immediate removal of a huge road block set up by Arabs at the Jaffa ?ate entrance to the Old City. The order warned that military action will be taken if the obstacle is not removed by 4:00 P.M. today.
An unprovoked attack on Jews in the Old City took place last night when British troops on the one hand, and Arabs on the other, began to snipe at Jewish residences, with the Jews returning the fire of the Arabs. Meanwhile, a British spokesman said today that truce talks covering the whole of Jerusalem were continuing “satisfactorily.” He referred to the U.N. three-man truce commission which was reported today to be conferring in Jericho with Arab leaders. The commission is composed of the American, French and Belgium consuls -general in Jerusalem.
The Jewish Agency has sent a formal protest to the dean of the consular corps in Palestine in connection with an arms cache found on the premises of the Iraqi consulate. A spokesman for the Palestine Government announced that the cease-fire order for the Katamon quarter of Jerusalem, which was to have expired this afternoon, has been extended indefinitely.
BATTLE AT KFAR ETZION CONTINUES; ARABS LAUNCH ATTACK IN UPPER GALILEE
The battle at Kfar Etzion continued today with the Arabs suffering heavy casualties, while eight Jews were killed during the day. The Jews captured 20 Arab armored vehicles, Jewish points in the Kfar Etzion region are reported to have been damaged by the Arab Legion’s shelling.
Two companies of regular Syrian and Lebanese infantry troops this morning launched a heavy attack on Ramath Napthali in the northernmost sector of Upper call###. The attackers were reported using artillery and several armored cars.
Simultaneously, a Haganah staff officer told a news conference in Tel Aviv that a large concentration of Egyptian forces, mostly members of the Moslem Brotherhood, and commanded by regular Egyptian Army officers, are massing on the Negev border. The Arab Legion, he said, is occupying a sector stretching across the Negev desert from Beersheba to Gaza
50 BRITISH TROOPS, MANY ARABS FELLED BY TYPHOID EPIDEMIC IN ACRE
The Haganah officer revealed that Lebanese and Syrian identity cards had been found on the bodies of officers and troops killed in attacks on Jewish settlements in northern Palestine a few days ago. Commenting on the situation in Jaffa, he asserted that “the Arabs are continuing to flee Jaffa. There will soon be more British there than Arabs.”
British sources reported today that 50 British troops and six police constables have been stricken in the typhoid epidemic raging in Acre, across the bay from Haifa. The town’s population has swollen from 15,000 to more than 25,000 as a result of the Arab evacuation of Haifa. This, plus the breakdown in the municipal chlorination machinery, accounts for the sudden outbreak of the dread disease.
Medical supplies and equipment are being rushed to the city by British Army Units. One report indicated that at least 50 Arabs have also been felled by the epidemic.
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.
