The News & Observer · Raleigh, North Carolina · 26 April 1948
CP-1948-054
Thousands of Arabs Flee As Jews Open Jaffa Drive
Irgun Troops Attack Ancient City; Haganah Men Seize Road at Jerusalem
United Press, Jaffa, Palestine
Transcribed from the clipping
“Jaffa, Palestine, April 25.—(U.P.)—Thousands of Arabs fled this ancient city today as men of the Jewish extremist Irgun Zvai Leumi battered Jaffa with mortars in the fiercest attack of the five-month ‘war,’ police said tonight. Police Superintendent J. M.
Flanagan said that at least four persons were killed and 82 wounded as Irgunist mortars, firing from the ‘no man’s land’ between Jaffa and Tel Aviv, hammered the heart of the Jaffa business section. Flanagan said that Irgun forces, reported driven back after seizing the railroad station and the big Manshieh police station, had not been able to hold any part of the Arab city.
A Haganah broadcast tonight accused Irgun of ‘indulging in dangerous adventures.’ Lydda airport, near here, was closed down tonight, with all scheduled flights cancelled. Reports that Trans-Jordan’s Arab Legion had seized the great international airfield could not be confirmed.
Reports that heavy Arab Legion reinforcements had crossed the River Jordan to join the battle for the Holy Land also were unconfirmed. Neither Jewish nor British sources would admit knowledge of the rumors. Flanagan said that Arabs fled the city after British forces broke up an Irgunist roadblock on the Jerusalem highway, only land link between Jaffa and the rest of Palestine.
He said the mortar bombardment blew a hole in the roof of a moving picture theater on King George Avenue and caused some damage to the Jaffa postoffice. One projectile fell in the postoffice yard.”
Context added by this archive
The Haganah broadcast disowning the Irgun runs in the fourth paragraph, and the reason the Arabs left is attributed to a named British police superintendent. Printed beside a story about American troops quelling a riot in Kobe. The subhead is “Airport Closed.”
Cite this clipping
"Thousands of Arabs Flee As Jews Open Jaffa Drive," The News & Observer, 26 April 1948, p. 1. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1948-054. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1948-054
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More from the 1940s
- Jewish Reprisal Raids On Two Arab Villages Take Toll of 8 LivesThe News Journal · 1 January 1948
- Palestine Blasts Rip Arab OfficesThe New York Times · 5 January 1948
- Jews Blow Up Military Post Of Jaffa ArabsMorning Advocate · 5 January 1948
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- Jews Dynamite HQ of Arabs’ High CommandDaily News · 5 January 1948
- 15 Arabs Die In Jaffa BlastTerre Haute Tribune · 5 January 1948
- All 334 clippings from the 1940s →
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Last updated 2 November 2026
This record is part of Covering Palestine, an archive of American newspaper clippings about Palestinians, 1724 to 2023. Researched and assembled by Maria Robles.
The clipping belongs to the newspaper that printed it, or to the news agency that supplied the copy. It is reproduced here for research, criticism and commentary. A city here is where the newspaper was published, not where the story came from, and on most records it was taken from the masthead.
Something wrong here, or something you know about this clipping? The archive is still being built and corrections are wanted: maria@rozumstudio.com, quoting CP-1948-054.
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