OUTBREAK OF TYPHOID

Chronicle (Levin), 9 August 1948, Page 5

OUTBREAK OF TYPHOID

(N.Z.P.A.—

Reuter ,

Terrible Plight Of Arab Refugees

Copyright)

Received Monday, 10.35 a.m. LONDON, Aug. 8. The Arab medical authorities report a serious outbreak of typhoid among refugees in the Ramallah area, north of Jerusalem. Thiriy cases are receiving treatment and many more are feared. Twenty-five thousand refugees in the area have already been inoculated. Nineteen cases of typhoid are reported from the Nablus area, 45 miles from Ramallah. Thousands of Arabs are living in] open fields and caves in primitive, squalor, with polluted water sup-' plics, near Ramallah. Doetors re-| pori that many children and old people are dying nightly from exposure. There is no miik for the : children and a serious shortage of1 bread. Doetors fear that the shifting reiugee population might carry! typhoid and other diseases over; the borders of neighbouring Arab, countries. Three hundred thousand helplcss Arab refugees have been suddenly flung on the world in a great humain disaster comparable with' the San Francisco earthquake, said Sir Ralph Cilento after a sixdav tjur of the Arab refugee camps in Palestine. Sir Ralph listed the gravest problems as food and the prewiii.er preparation for an epidemic risK. Tne refugees' food suppliesj were suiiicient only for two to six' wet-ks. Ile said a great number of young refugee children, pregnant women aria nursing rnochers lived in terrib.e conditions. Nine 'thousand Arabs with li-ttle muiey lel't for food, poured into over-populated Nazare.h since its capture by Israel troops. Sir Raiph added that he saw eleven refugees with one blanket. An ofiicial Jewish source in. Jerusalem stated that three Arab Legion troopers and one Jewish soldier were hit in shooting in shoo ing in Arab-Jewish borderline Arab- Jewish borderline territory, near the Shelkh-Jarrah quarter. United Nations observation planes liew for the first time over Ihe Jerusalem area to spot local truce violations. The Uni-ed Nations mediator, Count Bernadotte, is expected in the Jerusalem area 1 omorrow.