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*Truce in Effect Temporarily In Jerusalem
May 1, 1948
By Carter L. Davidson
Jerusalem AP - Jewish shock troops threw a headlock Friday night around a string of Arab strongpoints in a 22-hour battle for Jerusalem.
Fighting in the southern section of the Holy City halted for a time when Arab fighters asked for a truce. Then the struggle was resumed as 2 heavy explosions rocked the battered Katamon area.
Fifteen Jews and 30 Arabs are know to have been killed thus far.
JUST BEFORE the brief halt in the struggle, a Jewish Agency spokesman said the British district commissioner had sent word to the Jews that if the battle was continued "Britain would use all its arms, including air power," against Jewish sections of Jerusalem.
On the Palestine coast other Jewish units moved into Salama, a little more than a mile from Jaffa. The Jews were reported unofficially to have seized also the neighboring town of Yazur on the Jaffa-Jerusalem highway. An iron ring thus has been closed around the Arab port city of Jaffa if Yazur as well as Salama now is in Jewish hands.
THERE WERE reports that the threatened invasion of Palestine by regular army troops of neighboring Arab states was underway. An Arab News Agency dispatch received in Damascus said troops of Iraq and Trans-Jordan entered Palestine Friday afternoon. There was no immediate confirmation. The Syrian army moved southward to springboard positions from which it might launch a drive into northern Palestine.
Arab commanders rushed reinforcements of irregular volunteers from Jericho, Bethlehem and Hebron to bolster their sagging lines into Jerusalem. Word spread through the streets of the Holy City that this was the showdown.
The Jews claimed a large number of Arabs have begun evacuating the Katamon quarter.
Haganah, the Jewish militia, carried out the operations in Jerusalem and in the region around Jaffa.
THE JEWISH underground organization , Irgun Zvai Leumi., has struck into the Manshieh quarter of Jaffa itself. Fourteen Irgun warriors were killed battling with the British before a cease fire was agreed upon. They were buried with military honors Friday on the last Jewish Passover Day.
Talks between the British and Jews for a truce in the Jaffa-Tel Aviv area broke down suddenly Friday night when the British presented a 5-point ultimatum from the Palestine High Commissioner, Gen. Sir Alan Gordan Cunningham, it was learned authoritatively.
The ultimatum, timed to expire at noon Saturday, demands that Irgun fighters withdraw from the ground they have seized in Jaffa and that all firing cease on a front from Jaffa south to Beit Dejan. Irgun has said itwas determined to keep the positions it has gained.
BRITISH TROOPS will deploy Saturday along the border between Arab Jaffa and Tel Aviv, an all-Jewish city.
Jewish troops moved into Salama, key Arab position in the Jaffa perimeter, without firing a shot after maneuvering the Arabs into a position where they had no choice but to withdraw.
Streets and houses in Salama were deserted when the Jews arrived.
The Arab troops and the 12,000 civilians there had fled down a narrow escape corridor which the Jews purposely had kept open.
Herald-Journal |
