By April 27, 2008 Read More →

Two French Officers Die in Palestine, Associated Press, Hartford Courant, Aug. 29, 1948.

Towards GazaClick here to view the original article.

Tel Aviv, Israel, Aug. 28.-(AP.-_Gunfire killed two French officers today while on a United Nations aerial coast patrol in the vicinity of Gaza, the Egyptian army base in Palestine, a United Nations announcement said.

A United Nations source said the American pilot of the plane was hurt. His name was not learned here.

The bullet-riddled plane landed at the Gaza Airfield, but it was not known whether it was hit in flight or whether it had made an emergency landing and then was fired upon, the United Nations announcement said.

The victims were Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Queru, 50, and Captain Pierre Jaennel, 28. Queru was shot in the chest. Jaennel, a member of the French Air Force, was hit in the right temple.

Sergeant Noble Brown (home town ungiven). a United States Air Force flight engineer, arrived at the Gaza Air Field in another United Nations plane a few minutes later.

Upon his return to Haifa, Brown told United Nations officials he saw the plane being wheeled from the runway and that it had bullet holes in the fuselage and windows.

Jewish sources here said Israelis in the Gaza area claimed they saw the plane “apparently being shot down.” Gaza is in the center of the “Gaza Strip” given the Arabs under the United Nations partition plan. The nearest Israeli army position is seven miles inland.

United Nations officials will send a team from Halfa to Gaza tomorrow for an on-the-spot inquiry.

(In Jerusalem Israeli sources said a French United Nations observer was wounded in Arab shelling on Mount Zion. There was no United Nations confirmation.

(The Israelis said Arab gun and mortar fire was directed at various Jewish suburbs and military positions this morning and last night. The Jews returned the Arab fire and injured “at least four Arabs,” a communique said.)

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