The Observer · 28 April 1948
CP-1948-065
Arabs Flee Jaffa as Zionist Forces Battle Way Into City
United Press, Jerusalem
Transcribed from the clipping
“JERUSALEM, April 28 (UP)—British tanks went into action today against Jewish forces in the Irgun Zvai Leumi which hammered their way into Jaffa, the big Arab city next to Tel Aviv.
The British army intervened in the siege of Jaffa as Irgunist units battered into it from the northeast and Haganah troops struck from the south… An Arab defeat seemed probable, and some 60,000 civilian Arabs in the city were seeking to escape.
Some boarded Lebanese schooners and sailing ships in the harbor, and others sought to flee through the Jewish lines… The Irganists mopped up the entire Menshiya suburban area, and pressed on toward the port, while Arab defenders, hard pressed from three sides and with their backs to the sea, fought back desperately.”
Context added by this archive
Sixty thousand people leaving one city, counted twice on the same page.
Cite this clipping
"Arabs Flee Jaffa as Zionist Forces Battle Way Into City," The Observer, 28 April 1948, p. 1. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1948-065. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1948-065
This clipping is read closely in the section below
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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-1948-065.
Read in: Jaffa, from 70,000 to 2,000
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