The News Journal · 1 January 1948
CP-1948-055
Jewish Reprisal Raids On Two Arab Villages Take Toll of 8 Lives
Hagana Drafts Palestine Youth · Machine-Gun, Grenade Assaults Seen Hagana Revenge for Killing Of 41 Persons at Haifa · Four Bombs Rip Jaffa Rail Line · Nazareth Bank Robbed Of $4,000 by Armed Band; Burial Society Opens New Cemetery
By the Associated Press, Jerusalem
Transcribed from the clipping
“JERUSALEM, Jan. 1—Police said six Arabs and two Jews were killed today in a Jewish reprisal raid on the Arab village of Balad esh Shiekh, raising to 500 the deaths in communal strife since the United Nations decided 34 days ago to partition Palestine. The Jews, using machine-guns and grenades, also struck at another Arab village, Hawassa. At least 30 persons were wounded.
The attacks, believed instigated by Hagana, the Jewish underground defense force, were reported as revenge for the killing of 41 Jews at the consolidated refinery plant at Haifa after the Jews had thrown a bomb into a group of Arabs lined up before the plant’s employment office.
(The exiled mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el Husseini, told reporters in Cairo he was ‘satisfied with Arab resistance’ to the UN decision. He had just conferred with Premier Mahmoud Fahmy Nokrashy Pasha of Egypt.)”
Context added by this archive
The chain of reprisal is set out in the paper’s own sentence: the raid answers the killing of 41 Jews at the refinery, which answered a bomb thrown into a group of Arabs at the employment office. Printed beside a story about meat rationing. “Balad esh Shiekh” is the paper’s spelling.
Cite this clipping
"Jewish Reprisal Raids On Two Arab Villages Take Toll of 8 Lives," The News Journal, 1 January 1948, p. 1. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1948-055. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1948-055
More from The News Journal
- Glory Of Ancient Palestine May Be Restored By JewsThe News Journal · 13 March 1927
- Racial Controversy in PalestineThe News Journal · 27 October 1930
- No Peace in PalestineThe News Journal · 30 October 1953
- Bethlehem, Jerusalem shops ordered closed by Israeli policeThe News Journal · 26 April 1988
- Little peace accorded settlers in GazaThe News Journal · 20 May 1994
- Bush team plans different Mideast tackThe News Journal · 8 February 2001
- 3 more from this paper in the full text →
More from the 1940s
- Palestine Blasts Rip Arab OfficesThe New York Times · 5 January 1948
- Jews Blow Up Military Post Of Jaffa ArabsMorning Advocate · 5 January 1948
- Ninety Wounded In Truck Blast At HeadquartersThe Beaumont Enterprise · 5 January 1948
- Jews Dynamite HQ of Arabs’ High CommandDaily News · 5 January 1948
- 15 Arabs Die In Jaffa BlastTerre Haute Tribune · 5 January 1948
- Jews Blow Up Arab Chiefs’ HotelPortland Press Herald · 5 January 1948
- All 334 clippings from the 1940s →
In these collections
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-1948-055.
Everything printed in 1948 · Printed on this day · See it in the archive reel · Full text of every clipping · Dataset