PALESTINE

Taranaki Daily News, 10 December 1917, Page 5

PALESTINE

TURKS FORCED BACK THE LAST LINE WEST OP JERUSALEM. j HILLS CAPTURED BY OUTFLANKI ING. IMPORTANT RIDGE CAPTURED.

Received Dec. #, 6.6 p.nv London, Dec. 8. Palestine headquarters report: We have forced back the Turks to the last line that they can occupy west of Jerusalem. The hills around the city arc of high military value, because they command the approaches to Jerusalem. They are some thousand feet high, on either side of the road. They were well supplied and could have been held for weeks, yet General AUenby forced the Turks to abandon them, without a blow, by continual outflanking. We are now up the passes. ' The struggle centres in a few places commanding the whole country, and some of these places are ours. Fighting was strong and bitter, ibut our progress was quite satisfactory. Another wonderful feat is the turning of the goat tracks into motor roads for supply, everything being done with the energy characterising the advance from Gaza. On the Beersheba line, the British capture of the ridge between Sliilta and El Bu'ri was a sterling piece of work. It covered the Jaffa road and fiOO picked Turks held the position, but the Lowlanders overwhelmed them, killing large numbers, and practically the whole Turkish battalion was wiped out. Samuel's tomb is now a mass of ruins. HEBRON OCCUPIED. Received Dec. 0, 5.5 p.m. London, Dee. 7. Palestine official: General Allenliy has occupied Hebron. [Hebron, an ancient city of Judah, is 20 miles s. by w. of Jerusalem. The modern town of 10,000 inhabitants surrounds the Jewish enclosure over the rock-cut cavern supposed to be the sepulchre of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebekah and Leah, representing the cave of | Machpclah.]