Palestine question – Attack on Jewish convoy – Press release

UNITED NATIONS

Department of Public Information

Press and Publications Bureau

Lake Success, New York

Press Release PAL/307

22 September 1948

JEWISH CONVOY ATTACKED;

ACCOMPANIED BY UN OBSERVER

(The following has been received today at UN Headquarters from the Press Officer

with the staff of the United Nations Mediation Mission in Palestine, Haifa)

Snipers, firing from the ruins of the Latrun Pumping Station at about 10:00 GMT today (22 September) attacked a Jerusalem bound convoy killing three Jews and wounding several others.

The first incomplete reports of the incident say that the convoy, which was accompanied by a UN observer in a white United Nations jeep and a Jewish liaison officer, was fired on from the pumping station while passing through a no-man's land.  The drivers and other Jewish convoy personnel jumped out and took cover by throwing themselves on the ground.  Then, three men wearing white head-gear emerged from the pumping station firing on the prone people, killing three and wounding others.  The three snipers escaped.

After the incident the convoy returned to the Jewish lines and a United Nations observer drove to the site of the attack to pick up the wounded and dead.

Jerusalem food convoys had functioned regularly without serious incident until the day of the Mediator's  murder, but were then cancelled because of the tense situation.  Today's convoy consisting of eight or nine trucks, was the first dispatched since 17 September.

* * *