April 15, 1948 Jewish Forces Against Arab Forces

“The greatest pitch battle yet fought in the four-and-one-half months of Palestinian strife was developing today between some 1,500 Haganah men based in the Mishmar Haemek settlement in northern Palestine, and the core of Fawzi El-Kawukji’s Arab ‘Army Of Liberation,’ according to Jewish and Arab reports.

There were at least 127 Arab dead and wounded, the Haganah radio said, in thirty hours of fighting yesterday and last night during which the Jews occupied three more villages in the seven-mile arc south of Mishmar Haemek.

The Haganah reported three Jews killed and several wounded while repulsing eleven counter-attacks launched by Arab reinforcements from Arab headquarters at Jenin. Other Jewish sources reported that forty-six Arab dead had been found on the battlefield this morning.

[A special session of the United Nations General Assembly to reconsider the Palestine Question will open at Flushing Meadow at 11 A. M. today. The Jewish Agency rejected the Security Council plan for a truce but offered alternative proposals]

Camp Near Tel Aviv – Won

The Jews today in a second success drove out the Arabs and occupied Tel litzinsky camp, six miles from Tel Aviv. The camp was originally constructed for the United States air force…

The camp had been sold to the Jews by the British army but since Jews were not allowed to enter it during the final stages of the British withdrawal, the Arabs had been able to seize it…

Ismail Safwat Pasha, commander in chief of Arab Liberation Armies, was said to be en route from Cairo, Egypt, to Jenin after Fawzi El-Kawukji, the field commander, had narrowly escaped capture yesterday. But there was no confirmation from Arab quarters here of this news broadcast by the Cairo radio….

While the main Jewish forces overran Megiddo early this morning, Jewish sources said that other forces, based on Jewish settlements at the foot of Mount Gilboa attacked the rear of Fawzi El-Kawukji’s forces entrenched at Lajjun. Since then a temporary lull has prevailed in the region.

Megiddo, four miles from Mishmar Haemek, is the scene of Biblical Armageddon. It was here that Viscount Allenby defeated the Turks in World War I.”

Source: New York Times, April 16, 1948