BRIDGES WRECKED; MANY ARRESTS

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24905, 19 June 1946, Page 7

BRIDGES WRECKED; MANY ARRESTS

Reuter’s correspondent also reports that a trooper was injured when attackers tossed hand-grenades in an assault against a Transjordan frontier camp near Safed. Buildings in Tel Aviv last night were plastered with posters claiming that the illegal Jewish defence organisation, the Haganah, had destroyed 11 bridges in the north, south, and east of Palestine. The posters added that the attackers had tried to avoid bloodsheds They urged Jews to listen to-day for a special broadcast from the underground radio,. “Voice of Israel.” Entire Settlement Arrested “The entire population of the Jewish settlement of Bethhaarava, numbering 300, has been arrested by the Palestine police in connexion with the blowing up of the Allenby bridge, which spans the Jordan two miles from Jericho,” reported Reuter’s correspondent in Jericho yesterday. , * “Ten Jews armed with tommy-guns attacked the police post on Sunday night, and after a gun battle succeeded in blowing up the bridge. The explosion damaged the frontier control and customs buildings. “Seventy men and women were removed in lorries from Bethhaarava for further interrogation. The police and troops were supported by tanks and artillery.”

Reports say that police dogs led searchers from the bridge to Bethhaarava, which is a small collective settlement on the shores of the Dead Sea. It is the lowest inhabited place on the earth’s surface, being 900 feet below sea level Police and motorised infantry cordoned off the settlement. Jewish workers from a nearby mineral factory went to the aid of the settlers. It is officially stated that the settlers at Bethhaarava put up considerable resistance to the search. Men and women locked hands and tried to prevent the searchers from entering the village. Women seized sticks and attacked the soldiers. Other settlers lay on the pound and refused to submit to questioning. Several were injured, one by a bayonet. The Palestine police last night arrested 12 men and 12 women in various settlements. One woman had a bullet wound in the chest. A message from Jerusalem says that Boyal Air Force reconnaissance aeroplanes are co-operating with British motorised infantry and Palestine police in carrying out a country-wide aunt for the Jewish bridge wreckers. British sappers, veterans of the

j Rhine crossing, threw a substitute . Bailey bridge across the Jordan, a few yards from the Allenby bridge. 1 They worked for hours stripped to the waist under a boiling sun before traffic was restored. ; Fighting at Allenby Bridge ; The three Arabs and three British ' who guarded the police and customs post at the Palestine end of the Allen- • by bridge fought two separate battles, ’ each lasting over half an hour, against ’ greatly superior forces. 1 The attacks were evidently planned with the dual purpose of blowing up the bridge and destroying the guardhouse, which contained the police card file of black-list names. The main , force of attackers engaged the guards ’ while the others succeeded in destroying the Palestine end of the bridge. ’ The attackers got within 20 yards of • the guardhouse and threw grenades 1 which loosened the main door from ’ its hinges. The defenders’ task was made more 5 difficult because a full moon r silhouetted them every time they pre- • pared to shoot, but they finally drove ■ off the atteckers with the help of I Transjordan Arab Legion guards firing across the river from the other ■ end of the bridge.

• While terrorists wearing military I uniforms attacked the police post at I Zib, north of Haifa, another party blew up a railway bridge on the 1 Haifa-Beirut military line. At the - same time other raiders blew up a . road bridge at Metulla, on the frontier between Palestine and Lebanon. j Thirty armed Jews in southern ; Palestine attacked rail and road _ bridges near Gaza. A rail bridge . which was attacked with bombs is 1 still standing, but a road bridge which was blown up by a land mine is im- ' passable. Six Jews held up a policeman on ’ the Jisbranat-Yacoub bridge over the a Jordan, threw the policeman’s rifle ; into the river, and then blew up the - bridge. - Other attacks on the southern - shores of the Sea of Galilee resulted “ in the partial destruction of one rail r bridge and two road bridges. It is announced in Jerusalem that a - British officer was killed when diss mantling a mine placed on the Jisrdat miya bridge. Six Jews died on the Zib bridge on Sunday night when explot sive charges blew up while they were - being placed in position. i Army Public Relations says that the ? two British soldiers killed in Gaza last J night when the Arabs celebrated the . Grand Mufti’s escape were lynched by J a mob.