March 11, 1948 Small-Scale Guerrilla Raids by Arabs

“The Arabs have been conducting small-scale guerrilla raids on Jewish settlements and communications for the last few weeks. They plan to step up these activities in the coming months.

Originally the Arab strategy was to arm quietly and prepare themselves during the winter months, but to give no indication of their strength. Then, once the British evacuated, they planned to close in with a series of surprise attacks and overwhelm the Jews.

Their propaganda, however, had a much greater reaction on the emotional Arabs than was expected. Immediately after the U. N. acted on partition, spontaneous riots broke out in Palestine and elsewhere in the Middle East.

These attacks tipped the Arab hand and the Jews immediately prepared for a long, tough fight.

The revised Arab strategy is to train, in Syria and neighboring Arab countries, troops for guerrilla warfare. The training schedule has been completed for thousands of these men and they are now filtering across the border into Palestine. Headquarters of the Arab liberation army is near Nablus, deep in Arab territory and surrounded by the rocky Samaritan hills.

These troops are well equipped, armed with rifles, automatic weapons, grenades and machine guns. They are highly mobile units.”

Source: March 11^th, 1948  United Press Staff writer by Robert C. Miller