British Armored Cars Halt Battle on Road in Palestine, Associated Press, NY Times, Jan. 26, 1948.

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JERUSALEM, Jan. 25—Arabs and Jewish convoy guards fought today in a ravine outside Jerusalem. British armored cars with two-pound cannon and automatic weapons broke up the struggle in which at least ten Jews and two Arabs were reported killed.

The fighting developed along the highway to Tel Aviv. Both sides sent in reinforcements. The Arabs eventually built up their force to 300 men.

The battle began, Arab sources said, when guards preceding a Jewish convoy surprised a small Arab unit mining the highway. While the Jewish guards and the Arabs fought seven miles west of Jerusalem, the convoy turned back to a near-by Jewish settlement.

Jews said the Arabs launched their attack from the hills. The informants added that ten Jews were killed and two others wounded as the fighting swept through the ravine.

Palestine police said that of the twenty-five Jewish guards involved, four were known to have been killed, ten were missing and three of the remaining eleven were wounded.

Earlier, members of Haganah, the Jewish militia, were reported to have bombed fifteen or twenty houses in an Arab village near Yibna, fifteen miles south of Jaffa. The dawn bombing operation was designed to avenge recent Arab attacks on Jewish convoys, informants said.

The road through the area leads to Jewish settlements in the southern Palestine desert. Convoys to those settlements have been subjected to repeated attacks.

Jewish sources said three Arab houses had been blasted in the Jaffa-Tel Aviv border area. In near-by Er Ramle an Arab was killed and two others were seriously wounded when Jewish attackers opened fire on an Arab bus.

The body of a Jew was found on the outskirts of Haifa. Two Arabs died of bullet wounds received several days ago. A snipers’ fight developed between the Jewish and Arab quarters of Jerusalem.

The Jewish-Arab war over partition of Palestine now is nearly two months old. Thus far 980 persons have lost their lives in the fighting, an unofficial tabulation showed.

During the morning several Arab leaders left Palestine. They were believed en route to Tubas in the hills northeast of Nablus. In that area, about forty miles north of Jerusalem, the Arabs are reported to have established a camp for the first fully uniformed and mobile unit of Arab volunteers to enter Palestine. The unit is believed to be commanded by Palestine Arabs.

Arab informants said that an Arab force of 750 armed men, which entered Palestine from Trans-Jordan, had concentrated in Tubas. The sources added that those fighters had been deployed through a wide area. Included in the force were Iraqis, Syrians and Palestinians, the informants said.

The first evacuation of wives and children of United States consulate officials will begin tomorrow. Three families plan to go in a convoy to Haifa under an escort of British armored cars. At Haifa they will board a ship for the United States.