By April 23, 2008 Read More →

Egyptians Troops Reported Halfway to Tel Aviv, Associated Press, Topeka State Journal, May 17, 1948.

UN in PalestineClick here to view the original article.

Lake Success, May 17 (AP)-The United States demanded Monday that the United Nations security council order an immediate cessation of war in Palestine.

Cairo, May 17 (AP)-The Arab higher executive committee said Monday Egyptian troops have driven within 30 miles of Tel Aviv after an advance of at least 34 miles into Palestine.

The office said also the Jewish agency has authorized the surrender of Jews in the old city of Jerusalem to the Arab volunteer command.

The “conditions of surrender” provide that the Jews give up their arms that men be considered prisoners of war and that women and children be handed over to the into national Red Cross it said.

The office, quoting a communique from the Middle East broadcasting station, said Syrian and Iraq troops have joined forces in the Samakh area at the southern tip of the Sea of Galilee. The town, reported captured by the Syrians, is two and a half miles inside Palestine from both Syria and Trans-Jordan.

The Arabs claimed also to have seized the Rutenburg power station at the confluence of the Yarmuk and Jordan rivers. King Abdullah of Trans-Jordan asserted the station supplied two-thirds of Jewish industry in Palestine. Arab volunteers were reported to have captured the Lydda airport, inside Israel territory less than 10 miles from Tel Aviv, and another strip at the Qalandiya Jewish colony.

EGYPTIAN Foreign Minister Ahmed Khashaba Pasha said his government has received no official notification about recognition of Israel.

“When any such notification reaches us, the Egyptian government will base its reply on international law,” he said.

Egyptian authorities confiscated cargoes of three European ships at Alexandria, declaring they contained contraband for Palestine. They also seized 105 rifles aboard the S. S. Memnon, flying the Egyptian flag en route from England to Beirut.

The Syria government at Damascus banned all night flights across Syria and confined daylight air traffic to corridors. The precautions against bombings affected eight weekly flights of Pan American and Transworld airlines. Officials of the American concerns conferred with Syrian authorities on schedule changes.

Syria closed her borders to civilian traffic and required foreigners to get police permission to travel to Beirut. Reporters were barred from highways near the southern border.

Military sources at Damascus said Arab forces are “pouring” into Palestine across the Jordan. Syrian and Iraqi columns were reported deploying for possible drives up the western shore of the Sea of Galilee and westward thru the Beisan valley.

Lebanese troops and Arab volunteers supported by Syrian planes, claimed victories at Harawai and Malakia villages in northern Palestine. Army officers said Malakia is a logical base for a drive ten miles south against Safad, which Jewish forces captured recently.

PORT AUTHORITIES at Alexandria took 1,500 tons of machinery, acids, iron bars and pipes from the Norweigian ship Vigeld, which they said was en route to Palestine from London and Antwerp. The Italian ship Arfia was disgorged of 376 tons of iron, cotton and woolen goods, machinery and ammunition. The Richard Borchard, flying the British flag en route from Italy to Palestine, lost 1,300 tons of miscellaneous goods.

A reliable source said the Saudi Arabia government had agreed that the four C-47 transport planes, seized in Egypt from Trans World while en route for delivery to Saudi Arabia, would be regarded as having been delivered to Saudi Arabia herself.

The United States embassy here said Sunday the Egyptian air force confiscated four C-47 transport planes which the Trans World Airline had agreed to sell to Saudi Arabia.

American sources reported Saudi Arabia had outbid Egypt for six surplus TWA planes and two of the planes already had been delivered to Arabia. S. Pinkney Tuck, U. S. ambassador, asked Premier Mahmoud Fahmy Nokrashy Pasha to review the Egyptian move. The premier had approved the seizure.

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