13 Killed in New Battles in Palestine, United Press, San Francisco Chronicle, Jan. 15, 1948.

Click here to view the original article.

Tonight Jewish terrorists blew up the sumptuous unoccupied home of Haj Amin el Husseini, exiled Arab Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, and two other Arab homes in the Sheikh Jarrah suburb in North Jerusalem.

JERUSALEM, Jan. 14 (U.P.)—Violence blazed from north to south in Palestine today in a sudden new surge of savage Arab-Jewish clashes.

At least 13 persons were killed and many wounded in the three chief cities. In the south was fought one of the biggest battles since the United Nations voted to partition Palestine.

As the bomb blasts of terrorist dynamite squads echoed in fearful Jerusalem tonight, British authorities started discussions on full troop withdrawal.

Six Jews and one British policeman were killed when Arabs bombed a Jewish bus terminal in Haifa. Four Arabs and one Jew were killed in a fight in the no man’s land between Jewish Tel Aviv and Arab Jaffa. One Jew was shot dead in a main street in Jerusalem.

HIGHWAY BATTLE

Jews and Arabs fought a pitched battle on the Hebron highway south of Jerusalem for six hours when Arabs attacked four Jewish settlements—Ein Zurim, Masaot Izhak. Kefar Ezion and Revadim.

Arabs admitted heavy casualties due partly to mines laid about the edges of the villages. British authorities said they could not make a check until tomorrow.

The Jewish Haganah organization put out reports which would make this fight the most serious in point of casualties since partition, but British authorities said they were exaggerated.

Later, Haganah scaled down its casualties to two dead, four seriously injured. Reports from the French Hospital at Bethlehem said 19 Arab dead had been brought there.

The official casualty toll since December 1 was now 650 killed and 1850 wounded—a total of 2500. Unofficial reports put the total killed at 802.

MUFTI’S HOME

Tonight Jewish terrorists blew up the sumptuous unoccupied home of Haj Amin el Husseini, exiled Arab Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, and two other Arab homes in the Sheikh Jarrah suburb in North Jerusalem. Jews and Arabs fought a battle with automatic weapons, mortars, hand grenades and bottles of flaming gasoline under the 400-year-old city walls.

For two hours British troops exchanged fire with Arabs across the Syrian border as they screened members of Haganah, Jewish underground organization, who were repairing the Tel El Kadi water pumping station. The station was blown up in last Friday’s Arab invasion.

Britain officially opened discussions on withdrawal of troops from Palestine when John Troutbeck, chief of the British Middle East offices in Cairo, conferred with High commissioner General Sir Alan Cunningham here.