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.”

Photograph caption

ARABS FLEE JAFFA AS ZIONS ATTACK — Thousands of Arabs were fleeing Jaffa today as Zionist troops launched a second large scale attack on the Palestine port. An earlier attack on the city failed. A reported 60,000 civilian Arabs were reported attempting to escape the city.

Context added by this archive

Sixty thousand people leaving one city, counted twice on the same page.

Cite this item

"Arabs Flee Jaffa as Zionist Forces Battle Way Into City," The Observer, 28 April 1948. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1948-065. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1948-065

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