Hagana Seizes Jerusalem Arab Strong Points

Battle for Holy City Reported On; Jaffa Virtually Isolated

By the Associated Press, Jerusalem

Hagana Seizes Jerusalem Arab Strong Points — Evening Star, 30 April 1948 — Evening Star · Washington, District of Columbia · 30 April 1948

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Transcribed from the clipping

“JERUSALEM, April 30.—Hagana, Jewish militia, virtually isolated the Arab port of Jaffa today and threw a two-pronged attack at Arab positions in the strategic Katamon quarter dominating the southern part of Jerusalem.

Hagana captured Salama, toughest Arab stronghold village in the ring of Jaffa’s outer defenses… The quarter, formerly mixed Arab and Jewish, was evacuated by the Jews early in the current strife.

Arab national guards later moved in and were said to be reinforced by Iraqi volunteers… Hagana closed in on Salama in a pincers movement during the night, leaving a narrow lane open. The Arabs fled through the opening. When the Jewish militia took over in the morning the town’s entire civil population of 12,000, as well as the Arab armed forces, had fled.

The maneuver left neighboring Yazur, the second major strong point in the eastern perimeter of Jaffa, in a similar position of virtual encirclement.

It, too, could be cut off, if it is not abandoned first by the Arabs… If the British leave Jaffa at the end of their mandate, May 15, Jaffa would be left cut off from all but the sea and with its defense line pierced and its defenders outnumbered.”

Context added by this archive

Salama, on the day, under a subheading that reads “Civil Population Flees.” A pincers movement at night with a narrow lane left open, and by morning the whole town of twelve thousand gone. The verb is fled and the sentence before it describes how. Both are on the page.

Cite this clipping

"Hagana Seizes Jerusalem Arab Strong Points," Evening Star, 30 April 1948, p. 1. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1948-095. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1948-095