Syrian, Lebanese, Egyptian Forces Backed by Tanks

JEWISH AGENCY Urges Quick U.N. Action to Halt Invasion.

By the Associated Press, Jerusalem

Syrian, Lebanese, Egyptian Forces Backed by Tanks — Evening Star, 2 May 1948 — Evening Star · Washington, District of Columbia · 2 May 1948

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Transcribed from the clipping

“JERUSALEM, May 1.—The regular armies of Arab nations of the middle East invaded Palestine today, striking in the north and south with troops and armored forces.

Jewish and Arab accounts said Syria, Lebanon and Egypt sent powerful military formations sweeping across the border at dawn 15 days before the termination of the British mandate over the Holy Land… The invasion accounts came as thousands of Arab refugees streamed out of Jerusalem and Jaffa. In both cities the Jews have scored marked military gains.

Jaffa, an Arab port, was completely surrounded and its defense lines pierced. The British by guns and negotiations have prevented the city from falling to the Jews.

An estimated 30,000 of Jaffa’s 70,000 civilian residents have left the city by sea and road during the last two weeks… Fighting continued in Jerusalem where 100,000 Christians of the Greek Orthodox, Coptic, Syrian and Armenian churches prepared for their observance of Easter tomorrow.

In the late afternoon Arab men, women and children streamed onto roads leading to Jericho, Bethlehem and the north.”

Context added by this archive

Thirty thousand of Jaffa’s seventy thousand gone in two weeks, counted on 1 May 1948, a fortnight before the mandate ended. The subheadings are “British Troops Out of Area,” “Believed Ordered by Abdullah” and “Hagana Wins Key Positions.” The verb in both displacement sentences is streamed.

Cite this clipping

"Syrian, Lebanese, Egyptian Forces Backed by Tanks," Evening Star, 2 May 1948, p. 1. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1948-096. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1948-096