Evening star., 1948-05-23

! southeast of Haifa, the British said
-Four members Of the British
ground crew were killed and three
were seriously wounded, British
military headquarters in Haifa re-
ported. Two British planes, a Da-
kota and Spitfire, were destroyed
on the runway.
1O0-Pound Bombs Dropped.
A single Egyptian plane made the
f1rst raid, the British said. British
Spitfires took to the air and knock
ed down two of the four Egyptian
planes which participated in the
second attack. Two Egyptian planes
took part in the third attack and
both were shot down by the British
pilots. The Egyptian planes dropped
10O-pound bombs. A Jewish report
said the Egyptian attacks caused
large fires.
"a British Foreign Once
spokesman in London said I'VE
very much regret the incident.
but we must emphasize that the
air field is we'll within the 20-mile
radius which we laid down as be-
ing our evacuation area.")
Israers air force struck again in
support of Jewish ground troops
making a last-ditch stand in Jeru-
salem against Trans-Jordan's Arab
Legion, Jewish announcement
said.
| For the second night in a row the
Jewish planes concentrated last
night on Arab infantry, vehicle and
gun concentrations in Shufat. a
northern suburb of Jerusalem. The
Jews said Shu'fat Is an Arab opera
tional base for the attack on Jeru-
salem.
| Tel Aviv, Israel's temporary capi-
tai, was under air attack today for
the eighth consecutive day. There
we're four or five alerts during the
night, and at daybreak the sirens
began sounding at almost hourly
Intervals. Several distant explosions
were heard.
| Jewish military leaders, reviewing
the situation as whole, said 1Srael's
army entered the second week OF
Its war against the armed forces of
five Arab powers with the new
Jewish states partition-drawn from
tiers virtually undented.
| On one of these fronts, the in
formants said, the Jewish army is
fighting its f1ercest battle well be-
yond those frontiers and on second
its troops are operating more In
Arab territory than on 1sraels own
land.
Jerusalem Situation Serious.
A high Jewish staff officer de-
scribed the Jerusalem situation as
serious. but said that only in Jeru-
salem could the fighting be regarded
as having come to its crisis. The
outcome in the Holy City where
the Jews are fighting a Bataan-
| like battle, could not be predicted
from here, he added.
He gave this general picture of
the operations:
The forces of Lebanon and Syria
are in action along their frontiers
with Palestine. Troops of Iraq,
fighting in close coordination with
Trans -Jordan's Legionnaires, have
been repulsed after their first main
thrust onto the territory of Israel.
The Arab Legion itself is scattered
over almost all of Arab Palestine.
From the south Egyptian forces in
strength are steadily moving up the
coast into Arab territory within 40
miles of Tel Aviv.
The Jewish officers said the Arab
Legion thrusts appear to be roughly
equal in strength. The size Of the
other forces and thus far the power
of their attacks has been less.
Remnants of the quickly defeated
irregular Arab volunteer army still
are participating in the battle around
Jerusalem and on the Jerusalem
Tel Aviv road but no longer are a
major factor, the Jews said.