HOLY CITY IS BOMBARDED

Grey River Argus, 12 April 1948, Page 5

HOLY CITY IS BOMBARDED

BATTLE DEVELOPING IN NEAR VICINITY (Rec. April 11 at 9.30 p.m.) JERUSALEM, April 10. There have been Jewish-Arab battles on the western approaches to Jerusalem. These have cut all communications between the city and the coast. Arab fieldguns have bombarded two Jewish settlements five miles west of Jerusalem, flanking the strategically-placed Arab village of Castel. There has been a Jewish offensive against Arab villages which have been used to blockade the supply route from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem. This offensive has weakened. The Arabs and Jews are both bringing up reinforcements, as full scale warfare, with artillery, aerial bombing and machine-gunning, enters into its second week. Both sides are agreed that the casualties number some hundreds.

The latest news however, is that the Jewish offensive on the Arab villages appears to have lost momentum. Earlier the Jews, using heavy mortars, recaptured the Arab village of Castel on Mount Castel, which has already changed hands twice in the week’s fighting. A Jewish aircraft dropped 12 bombs over the Arab village of Abu Ghoosh, three miles west of Castel and damaged the wireless aerial at the police station. Arabs last night shelled Haganah forces occupying Mount Castel. Arabs in the Gaza area ambushed a convoy travelling from Haifa to Port Said, killed a British N.C.O. and destroyed six of the nine vehicles. The Haganah claimed Arab villages surrounding Mishmarhaemek, which refused Arab surrender terms after a five-day siege had been captured, also that its forces occupied several former British army camps in the Biblical village of Sorek, on the plain between Jerusalem and TelAviv. Jewish-sources reported that the Irgun Zva Leumi overnight stormed Deir Yassim, an Arab village outside the western outskirts of Jerusalem and were holding it. Arabs in the Gaza area ambushed a convoy travelling from Haifa to Port Said, killed a British non-com-missioned officer, and destroyed six - > of the nine vehicles.

ARABS SHELL HOLY CITY AND RECAPTURE CASTEL (Rec. 9.15). JERUSALEM, April 11. The Holy City has had its first bombardment. It received at least ten shells in the suburbs from a position which is plotted by military observers as being near Castel. The Arabs yesterday claimed to have recaptured Castel. The bombardment of Jerusalem lasted for fifteen minutes. After the arrival of Arab reinforcements, the shelling of Jewish defences at Castel was renewed. Only two or three of forty houses are said now to be intact. Arab gunners on Friday night fired a salvo of shells into the Jewish suburbs of Givat Shaul. New Montefiore, and Beth Hakarem in western Jerusalem. The deaths of three Jews so have been reported. This attack brought the Holy City under shellfire for the first’ time in its history. Three British soldiers were killed and six were wounded when two lorry loads of troops ran into -?.n Arab barrage directed against the Jewish traffic on the western approaches to Jerusalem. The British Army took over the Christian village of Ain Karem, five miles south-west of Jerusalem, to prevent the ancient Crusaders’ fortress there from falling ino the hands of either side.

jßeal Battle is Developing Outside Jerusalem (Rec. 9.5). LONDON, April 12. , News agency correspondents report that Arab forces launched before dawn on Saturday an artillery coun-ter-attack on the village of Caste], on Mount Castel, and later they claimed i that they had thrown out the Ha- ■ ganah forces, which occupied it on Friday. This village was originally an Arab stronghold dominating the main Jerusalem-Tel Aviv supply route. It has changed hands three ‘times in the past week’s fighting. The arrival of Iraqi irregulars, whom the Arab commander in northern Palestine sent as reinforcements, is believed to have enabled the Arabs successfully to storm the fortress again. The Mount Castel fighting is reaching battle proportions, and it is thrusting the possibility of an ArabJew truce ever farther into the background. , TT It is reported that Sheikh Hassan Salameh, 42-year leader of Arab uprisings in southern Palestine in 193 b 'and 1939, commands the Arab force at Jerusalem following the death of Abdul i Kader Husseini. Salalmeh went to Germany after participating in the Rashid Ali revolt in Iraq during the war. Jews Massacre 254 Arabs in Village (Rec. 9.50) JERUSALEM, April 10. The Jewish Haganah has announced that Arab women and children whom Stern Gang and Irgun Zvai Leumi forces took prisoner when Jews carried out a massacre of men, women and children in the village of Deir Yassim, have been handed over to British authorities. A later report stated: Jewish terrorists last night offered Red Cross officials a safe conduct to-day to the Arab village of Deir Yassim to remove the bodies of two hundred and fifty-four Arab men, women and children, whom Jewish forces massacred. The bodies will be delivered to Arabs at one of the Eastern Gates of the Old City of Jerusalem. 8000 Yugoslav Rifles for the Jews are Lost (Rec. 9.50). ROME. April 11. A 400-ton motor vessel, the Lino, which the police had detained at Bari, in South Italy, with a cargo of munitions. bound from Fiume for Beirut, north of Palestine, because the ship’s papers were false, blew up and sank, following an unexplained explosion. The police allege that they found in the ship’s holds 8000 Yugoslav rifles and six million rounds of Czechoslovakian ammunition.