Jewish forces today took the offensive on the northern and east central fronts, while holding their own on the southern front and fighting a desperate battle in and around Jerusalem.
In the north the Jews captured the Has el Nakura police station, important stronghold on the Palestine-Lebanese frontier near the coast. Further south along the coast, between Haifa and Tel Aviv, Haganah troops last night stormed and captured the Arab village of Tantaura. It was through the makeshift port of Tantaura that the Arabs smuggled in men and supplies to fight the Jews in the Tel Aviv district. Hundreds areas of Arabs were taken prisoner at the village and large quantities of military booty fell to the Jews.
HAGANAH PRESSES ATTACK ON SYRIAN ARMY NEAR SAMAKH
The Syrian forces wore under fierce attack by Jewish infantry today east of
On the Egyptian front the Arabs have resumed their long distance shelling of Jewish settlements and water lines. Nirim, Mkoroth, Hazaleh and Yad Mordechai were the chief targets of the Egyptian artillery and hit-and-run motorcade attacks. The Jews again bombed Egyptian supply depots near Gaza.
It was on the Jerusalem front that the Jews were hardest hit. However, despite Arab boasts of complete victory in and around the city and predictions that Jerusalem is “doomed,” the Jews managed to fight new Arab Legion attacks on Ramath Rachel, Jewish-strongpoint south of the city, and a number of suburbs to the north. The Hadassah Hospital and Hebrew University continued to take a terrific pounding from the Legion’s field guns and the fight in the Old City seemed one-sided with the Arabs using considerably more ammunition than the surrounded Jewish garrison.
Haganah attempts to break through the Zion Gate again to rescue the cut off Jews were hurled back yesterday. During the night the Jews were assisted by bombers which concentrated on Arab positions opposite Mt. Scopus. The Arabs have apparently launched a new offensive against Jewish positions on the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem road with an attack against Kfar Uria, near Latrun.
Tel Aviv was free from air attack and up to late this afternoon. There was an alert this morning, but no raiders appeared over the city. In a broadcast Mayor Israel Rokach told the inhabitants of the city that the air raids had cost 95 Jewish lives and 113 other casualties during the first week of the invasion.
Some 900 Jewish immigrants from Marseilles arrived at the port of Haifa yesterday. The British announced that four Egyptian airplanes which bombed a British air base near Haifa were shot down during the week-end and their pilots killed. Among the dead pilots were one Egyptian, two Germans and one Japanese.
The Government of Israel, it was learned here today, is preparing a White Paper on the British Government’s activities in Europe and the Middle East against the establishment of the Jewish state in Palestine. The White Paper will list the activities of the British Intelligence Services directed against any arms reaching the Jews from outside.
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.
