By September 19, 2007 Read More →

Haganah Kills 10 Arabs in Palestine, Associated Press, San Francisco Chronicle, Dec. 20, 1947

HaganahJERUSALEM, Dec. 19 (AP)—Jewish fighters—launching what Jewish sources described as the first blow to counter the Arab “invasion” of Palestine—killed 10 Arabs and wounded five others today in an attack on the border village of Khisas.

Subsequently the Palestine government clamped a highway curfew on this Upper Galilee area, prohibiting the movement of all Jewish vehicles for 36 hours.

Shortly after the toll in the Khisas attack had been counted the Arabs struck back by raking a convoy of buses in the Judean foothills with automatic weapon fire. One Jew was killed and three others were wounded.

Trench warfare developed near Tel Aviv.

At least 14 persons were killed during the day bringing to 280 the number of deaths in the Holy Land since the United Nations voted on November 9 for partition. The toll throughout the Middle East exceeded 400.

“INFILTRATION”

Jewish informants said warriors of Haganah shot up Khisas to halt “infiltration” by members of the volunteer army commanded by Fawzi Bel Al Kaukji. These Arab fighters, the sources said, have been slipping across the Palestine border and hiding out in Khisas, located just two miles from the point where the Palestine-Syria-Lebanon borders join.

Arab preparations for the anticipation fight were being pushed in the Holy Land itself and elsewhere in the Middle East. The Syrian Defense Ministry announced in Damascus that it had accepted the resignations of some army officers who wished to volunteer to fight Zionists in Palestine.

CAIRO MEETING

Elsewhere in the Middle East the premiers of seven Arab states began return trips to their capitals after attending the Arab League meeting in Cairo. They had decided “to indulge in the battle imposed upon them” by partition and to continue the struggle to a victorious conclusion.

It was reported in Damascus that the Arab leaders had adopted 17 secret resolutions at Cairo dealing with their stand against partition.

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