By April 27, 2008 Read More →

Conflict in Palestine: Post-Truce Clashes in The North Have Ended, U. S. Observers Report, Associated Press, San Francisco Chronicle, June 14, 1948.

Count Folke BernadotteBernadotte Says the Situation Has ‘Calmed Down,’ Confers Again With Arab and Israeli Leaders

United States military observers and the Israeli government said Sunday night that post-truce fighting had ended in the Galilee area of Northern Palestine.

The truce in the Arab-Jewish fighting effected by the United Nations had been threatened by heavy infantry and artillery clashes in that region.

Two U. S. naval officers, acting as truce observers, returned to Tel Aviv from trouble spots in Northern Palestine and reported that all was quiet, An Israeli communique said the fighting ended Sunday morning.

Jewish forces, the communique added, repulsed “all enemy attacks” before the fighting halted.

Count Folke Bernadotte, the U. N. mediator, said the latest reports he received today from Palestine indicated the situation there had “calmed down.”

After conferring with Jewish and Arab leaders Count Folke Bernadotte flew to Rhodes today, the Greek island where he will set up headquarters for conducting peace negotiations during the four-week truce period, On his arrival in Rhodes, Bernadotte said it was impossible to say anything now about future negotiations.

“I hope” he said, “the first part of my mission, namely bringing about a truce in Palestine between the Arabs and Jews, has been successful.”

The second part of his mission is to attempt to settle permanently, the Holy Land problem.

Since the three-day-old truce began, both Arabs and Jews have accused each other of violating the cease-fire.

Both said they would defend themselves, regardless of the armistice, unless the fighting ceased at once.

For the first time in over seven weeks a food convoy reached the 90,000 Jews in the modern section of Jerusalem. The trucks rolled into the Holy City after traveling over an alternate route through the Judean hills which Jewish engineers quickly built to hy-pass the Arab blockade of the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway in the Latrun area.

A Jewish spokesman said the convoy was fired upon by Arab Legion troops yesterday afternoon but no hits were scored. Legion military commanders in Jerusalem objected to the arrival of the unchecked convoy charging the cease-fire arrangement had been breached.

SYRIANS ACCUSED

The Israel government had accused the Syrians of several truce violations in Galilee and notified a U.N. representative it “would have to reserve the right” to protect itself against aggressive action there.

“The Israeli army was under a strict order to observe the truce, but has been complied to renew its activities in self defense, “early today Jewish authorities said in a letter to John Reedman, a member of the U. N. staff in Tal Aviv.

Syrian Premler Jamil Mardam Rey said the Jews were continuing operations in the same region. He said in Damascus that an Israeli attack early this morning inflicted some casualties at Tel Khenzir in the Baniyas area. Baniyas, a Syrian town, is half a mile from the northeastern corner of Palestine.

The Syrian government had declared its army would take the field again if the Jews did not halt their “aggressions.”

Arab sources in Amman said Damascus underwent an air raid Saturday night while Bernadette was in the Syrian capital.

ARAB STATEMENT

King Abdullah of Trans-Jordan said the Arabs acceptance of the Palestine truce “does not mean in any way that our determination to fight Zionism has weakened.”

“But we have wished,” he added, “to give the United Nations a proof of our sincerity in seeking peace in Palestine and to show it is the Jews who have caused the trouble there.”

At Rosh Pinna, five miles from the Syrian border, the Israeli commander, said Syrian attacks on three Galilee settlements were thrown back after 24 hours of post-truce fighting early this morning.

All day Saturday Syrian artillery and infantry heavily attacked Mishmar Hay Yarden, Mahanayim and Kfar Szold, the Jewish officer said. The Israeli government asserted Ein Geb, an isolated Jewish settlement on the eastern shore of the sea of Galilee, also was shelled.

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