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April 13, 1948 Attack on convoy to Hadassah Hospital

April 13, 1948 Arab Murder, Mayhem, and Massacre

This attack took place within two hundred yard of a British Army Post. Iraqi Soldiers were among the Arab gangs which attacked the convoy. The attack lasted for six hours before the eyes of the British Military, who not only failed to halt the attack, but prevented the Haganah from coming to the rescue.

The April 13, attack was the climax of a series begun on December 30, 1947. Continuous complaints and a request for protection of the road which leads to the Hadassah Hospital and the Hebrew University, had been made by the Jewish Community Council of Jerusalem and by Hadassah itself.

The area requiring protection was half a mile in length on the Scopus Road. Between March 26 and April 6 no incidents occurred. On December 27 the Arab Higher Committee, and on January 13 the Palestine Arab Medical Association issued memoranda asking the Arabs to refrain from attacking hospitals, ambulances, doctors, nurses. None the less, these attacks were accelerated. On March 17 Abdel Kadi el Husseini, then the Arab Military Commander in the Jerusalem area (subsequently killed by the Haganah) publicly announced that he would occupy or even demolish the Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center. Despite the full evidence concerning this, no effective action was taken by the British.

On April 13 British soldiers watched the Arab onslaught, and instructed  the Haganah not to send reinforcements. When Jewish reinforcements finally reached the scene, they were blocked by the British. When British troops ultimately intervened they fired mortar shells not only at the Arabs, but the Jews trying to defend themselves from the Arabs.

When Jacques deReynier, representative of the international Red Cross, attempted to arrange a truce, it took the British five and one half hours to bring M. de Reynier to the scene of the attack, which is not more than a 10- minute ride from the heart of Jerusalem.

Source: Page 13: Nation

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