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TEL AVIV, Israel, May 21 (AP) A high-ranking staff officer of the Jewish army said today Jewish forces are holding virtually unbroken the boundaries of their state despite Arab claims to the contrary.
The officer added that in some cases Jewish forces were operating beyond the boundaries as set up by the United Nations partition plan.
He denied Arab statements that the Arab Legion and Egyptian forces had linked at Beersheba and said the Legion was there but the Egyptians have not arrived yet. Egypt announced yesterday its mobile forces had occupied Beersheba.
The spokesman identified the targets of the Jewish air force last night as Gaza airfield and Arab Legion concentrations in a northern suburb of Jerusalem.
Arab planes again struck at Tel Aviv, Israel’s capital, today.
ARAB BASE SEIZED
A Jewish communique said Jewish forces has ousted Arab troops from the village of Samakh and seized a great quantity of arms and munitions. Samakh is the base from which the Arab attack was supposed to have been made on five Jewish settlements below Galilee.
The Jewish communique said Jewish troops repulsed Arab attacks on Degania A, near Samakh, and destroyed three tanks and four armored cars. “Many enemy dead were left on the battlefield,” the bulletin said.
(The Syrians said, however, that their entrenched troops had struck out from Samakh and destroyed the villages of Degania A and Degania B).
The Jewish air strikes set fires at the Gaza airfield, which the Egyptians have occupied, an announcement said. An attack was made also on Shu’fat, a northern suburb of Jerusalem.
A rooftop defense post shot down an Egyptian plane yesterday at Rehovot, 11 miles southeast of Tel Aviv.
AIR ATTACKS
The Jewish raids were the second and third carried out by Israeli aircraft since the termination of the British mandate early Saturday.
The first announcement that the Jewish air force was in action produced speculation as to whether a fighter defense soon may be provided for Tel Aviv.
A dispatch from Eilon, two miles from the Lebanese frontier, said Jewish forces now control a wide area of Western Galilee which was assigned to the Arabs under the United Nations partition scheme.
Jewish commandos have crossed into Lebanon several times and blown up bridges near the Palestine frontier, Jewish troops said.
The Arabs hold Ras En Naqura, a Palestine frontier post atop a chalky cliff at the edge of the Mediterranean. But from there south the Jews control the main coastal road into Haifa.
European Jews Rush To Embark From Italy
Chicago Daily News Foreign Service
ROME, May 21-As a Palestine bound tide of Jews from six European countries flows into Italy, ships in three Italian ports are being feverishly loaded with men and supplies for Zionist fighters in the Holy Land.
It is now expected, according to Jewish spokesmen here, that the vessels with reinforcements and munitions will be able to sail before the end of May.