6 Arab Armies Ready to Move into Palestine, Associated Press, NY Herald Tribune, Apr. 23, 1948.

Cairo Sources Say 50,000 Troops Will Cross Border as British Mandate Ends

CAIRO. April 22 (AP).-Reliable informants said today as many as 50,000 men from the regular armies of six Arab nations will move into Palestine on three fronts on May 16, when the British mandate ends, unless something happens at Lake Success to avert a military decision in the Holy Land. Arab leaders were said to regard full-scale war as “almost inevitable.”

Arab sources said recent Jewish successes and “massacres of Palestine Arabs at Deir Yassin, Tiberias and other places” had convinced them of the necessity of taking stronger measures than the raising of an Arab army of volunteers. They said they had underestimated Jewish fighting strength in making plans for a guerrilla war in Palestine.

The plan now calls for Egypt and Saudi Arabia to move in from the south, Iraq and Trans-Jordan units to strike from the east, and Syrian and Lebanese forces to attack from the north. Yemen alone has been excused from the Arab effort.

[Dispatches from Baghdad, Iraq, quoted General Ismael Sawfat, commander-in-chief of the Arab Liberation Army, as saying Arab regular armies would strike before May 16. Damascus dispatches said a Syrian Cabinet minister declared the situation was “too critical” to wait for the British evacuation. Other dispatches said reinforcements already were moving into Palestine from Syria and Trans-Jordan.]