Holy Land—1947, Associated Press, San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 25, 1947.

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JERUSALEM, Dec. 24 (AP)-Death took no Christmas holiday in the unhappy Holy Land today. Bullets killed six Arabs and two Jews, and at least nine other persons were injured.

The death toll since the Omitted Nations General Assembly voted November 29 to partition Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states mounted to 315 for the Holy Land.

A spokesman for the Palestine government told a news conference the government will take all necessary steps, including more patrolling, to obtain complete safety on the main road from Jerusalem to Jaffa and Tel Aviv.

This spokesman expressed the opinion that if the vicious circle of so-called mutual reprisal actions between Jews and Arabs would and for at least two days the situation would be much easier to handle.

The Jewish Agency has repeatedly demanded that Arab Legion troops stationed in Jewish areas of Palestine be removed, particularly from interurban roads essential to Jewish travel to Palestine. Fourteen Jews were recently killed at Nabala in an incident involving legion troopers. However, the government spokesman said today the general commanding officer was not considering transferring the troops to other areas.

Snipers’ bullets killed a Jewish woman while she was hanging clothes on the rooftop of her Haifa home. Three Arabs of the Hanajra tribe were killed while plowing their fields in the Beersheba area when a party of Jews driving past in six vehicles opened fire. A Jew was killed in the Hatikvah quarter of the bloody borderland between all-Arab Jaffa and all-Jewish Tel Aviv.

Two Arabs were killed and two others were wounded by gunfire in Haifa and another Arab died of wounds suffered last night in Jerusalem.

An Arab band bombed a prison truck at Jaffa tonight, seriously wounding a British constable and causing minor wounds to a Jewish prisoner.

Four Arabs disarmed guards at the Latrun detention camp water pumping station and bombed the establishment. They seized seven rifles and a quantity of ammunition before fleeing.