JERUSALEM, March 27-(AP). Jewish aircraft bombed concentrations of Arabs today in a battle near Solomon’s Pools, south of Bethlehem, it was reported officially.
A Royal Air Force spotter plane, flown to the scene, reported four Jewish aircraft were attacking Arabs who surrounded a 30-vehicle convoy.
A British military armored car was disabled by Arab fire. Five Jewish armored cars were under heavy fire.
ARABS BLOCK ROADS
Police reported 17 Arab road blocks between Bethlehem and Kfar Etzion, from which the convoy left to return to Jerusalem.
Two of the convoys were burning and the rest were under heavy fire.
The Jewish armored vehicles under fire were believed to contain reinforcements dispatched to help the convoy.
A Government spokesman said the convoy traveled from Jerusalem to Kfar Etzion before dawn “without reporting to security forces” and was returning when the attack began.
An official statement said the fate of occupants of the disabled British armored car was unknown.
5 MILES OF GUNFIRE
A five-mile line of gunfire-from Beit Jala, north of Bethle-hem, to the commercial center in midtown Jerusalem-swept this city and its suburbs.
Muffled explosions sounded from the downtown Mamillah road area.
Grenades and mortars snarled in the Montefiore sector.
Units of the Royal Warwick-shires, carrying large mortars, moved up along the old city walls, through the Valley of Gehenna (Hell).
An undeclared Good Friday truce ended last night with the sound of mortar and machine-gun fire in Jerusalem.