JERUSALEM, April 26 (AP) – The regular armies of six nations – Trans-Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq and Saudi Arabia – will launch an invasion of Palestine by Saturday, advices reaching Jerusalem tonight said.

A dispatch from Amman, capital of Trans-Jordan, said King Abdullah personally will take the field against the Jews at the head of the armies of Trans-Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

Closely Allied Moving with him will be Egyptian army units which will cross the Holy Land’s southern frontier in a co-ordinated action. The Egyptian command will be closely allied to Abdullah, it was said.

Arab informants in Cairo said Iraq and Saudi Arabia also have decided to throw their regular military forces into the fight to prevent the Jews from establishing a state of their own in the Holy Land.

Arab leaders reportedly are alarmed by the extent of recent Jewish military successes. Arab peoples in the Middle East have been inflamed by the arrival of Arab refugees from Palestine.

Would Defy Mandate An invasion of the Holy Land by regular army troops would defy the British mandate which is not scheduled to end until May 15 and the United Nations Security Council which has ordered a truce in Palestine.

The Cairo accounts said King Abdullah already has dispatched reinforcements of Trans-Jordan’s Arab Legion to Palestine.

The 15,000 legionnaires are well disciplined troops. British trained and adequately equipped, they are regarded as superior to the Arab volunteer forces which thus far have engaged the Jews in the Holy Land. Approximately 10,000 legionnaires already are in Palestine on security duty with the British.

Camp Occupied

The accounts telling of the massing of Arab armies on Palestine’s boundaries came as 500 Arab volunteers rushed into strategic Alamein camp on the southern edge of Jerusalem and occupied it without firing a shot.

The volunteers made their move tonight as the last elements of the British Suffolk Regiment pulled out. Members of Haganah, the Jewish militia, were deployed on two sides of the camp, but never had a chance to make a bid for the position which commands the entire southern approach to Jerusalem.

The Arab fighters, under command of Fadel Bey Jamal, a high officer of the Arab Judean army, went into Alamein camp from three sides. They sliced through a narrow corridor between the camp and the Jewish emplacements.

Readied for Troops An Arab commander said the camp will be readied for occupancy by some 1500 Syrian and Iraqi troops of the Yarmuk army’s 3rd Division under command of Abdul Hamid Raway.

Fighting was resumed along Palestine’s coastal plain. The Jewish extremist group, Irgun Zvai Leumi, struck again from Tel Aviv against the neighboring Arab city of Jaffa. In doing so the Irgunists acted in defiance of broadcast orders by Haganah, the regular Jewish militia.

Strong automatic weapons fire covered the Irgunists’ drive against Jaffa. Answering mortar and machine-gun fire indicated the Arabs were putting up stiff resistance.

The extent of Irgun’s gains in Jaffa were not clear. The first attack was launched yesterday. High Irgun officers told reporters last night Arab defenders had fallen back into the middle of the city of 95,000. Earlier, Hebrew newspapers said the drive had carried a mile into Jaffa’s frontier Manshieh quarter.

Other sources said the assault had stalled on running up against British troops with mechanized equipment.

King Abdullah Tells Plans for Holy Land War

AMMAN, Trans-Jordan, April 26 (AP) – Aging Warrior King Abdullah of Trans-Jordan said today he plans to take personal command of the Trans-Jordan, Syrian and Lebanese armies and move into Palestine by May 1.

Moving with him, the King said, will be Egyptian army units which will cross the Holy Land’s southern frontier at the same time, under an individual but closely allied command.

Abdullah told an Associated Press reporter he had been given command of the troops of Lebanon and Syria for the Palestine fight by the Arab League’s military council.

He said he had been urged at the same time by delegations of Palestine and Arab notables to declare himself King of Palestine as well as Trans-Jordan and move his throne to Jerusalem.

Explaining that Syrian and Lebanese troops had been placed at his disposal for quelling Zionism, Abdullah said, “I shall place myself at the head of my troops and enter Palestine.”

‘Instead of Waiting’ Asked whether the invasion of the Holy Land will begin while the British mandate is still in effect, Abdullah said, “Instead of waiting to May 15, Jews started to attack peaceful villages, Haifa and Jaffa and a great part of Jerusalem. This is sufficient provocation for Arab states to send their armies and I consider that no one government in the Arab states can dare resist the wish of its people.”

Abdullah continued, “There is an attack by Jews against Arabs and use of our troops is quite natural. I have advised Jews before to content themselves and live as citizens in an Arab state. If they refuse to do so then I am an Arab King of an Arab state and my army is an Arab army. I shall do as I please.”

Original Source

April 27, 1948 | © The Los Angeles Times

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