Word: kastelic
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Dates: during 1948-1948
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...through the rocky Judean hills to the coastal plain. The city's Jewish population, which used to buy 80 to 90% of its food from neighboring Arabs, now depends on food convoys from the Jewish settlements along the coast. One strongpoint on that road is the village of Kastel, a cluster of dirty stone huts, one big house and a mosque. Jewish Haganah fighters, after seizing it, held it early last week. Then, one morning at dawn, the Arabs counterattacked...
...Kader charged up the rocky slopes at the head of his men. Behind him the sky paled, silhouetting his stocky figure. Haganah Bren guns riveted bullets in a straight line across his body. Abdul Kader fell dead. As news of the battle reached Jerusalem, Arab reinforcements streamed out to Kastel in armored cars, trucks and battered U.S.-made taxis. By midafternoon, 2,000 strong, they occupied the village...
Perilous Bend. Jews were grim about Kastel. Said one: "We have to attack it again. This is our Battle of the Atlantic." They had managed to run a convoy of 40 food trucks through to Jerusalem by another road, the first supplies in twelve days. In a new push, Haganah fighters retook Kastel. But Fawzi Bey Kawukji, commanding the Arabs in the north, sent artillery and armored cars to support the Jerusalem Arabs. By week's end, Arabs claimed that they again held the village...
...Kastel fighting there were Britons on both sides. The Arab forces included five deserters from the Palestine police. In the confused close-in fighting at the end, two of these Britons heard a shout from the Jewish side: 'Come on, you Arab bastards!' They recognized the man as another police deserter and shouted back: 'Bastard yourself! What are you doing over there?' As the Haganah Briton went to throw a hand grenade in reply, one of the Arabized Britons killed him with his Bren...
Exploits in Savagery. Elsewhere, savage raids turned into brutal massacres. Four miles from Kastel, about 100 Jews (two-thirds Irgun, one-third Stern Gang) swept into the village of Deir Yesin at dawn, blew up its huts with demolition charges. More than 200 Arabs, half of them women & children, died in the slaughter. The rest of the village's 700 dwellers surrendered or fled to caves in the nearby hills. For the first time, the Irgun and Stern terrorists were fighting against Arabs as a tactical force. While the Zionist General Council was accepting the Irgun's offer...