Arabs Kidnap Family of 6 in Raid on Labor Camp at Athlit

An Arab rebel band late last night raided a labor camp at Athlit, coastal town between Haifa and Tel Aviv, and kidnaped a Jewish family of six, including police inspector David Leiserowitz, his wife, three children and mother-in-law. A British police inspector was wounded in the fighting.

It was reliably learned, meanwhile, that four big Arab bands totaling more than 1,000 are converging on Haifa, northern seaport city which has been the center of some of the country’s worst terrorism.

One band of 200 Palestine Arabs is headed by Yussef Abu Dura, chief in the “bloody triangle” sector of Nablus, Jenin and Tulkarem. A second is under the leadership of Fakhri Abdul Hadi, a relative of the exiled Auni Bey Abdul Hadi, and comprises 120 Palestine Arabs. Part of this band ambushed a Jewish bus on Mt. Carmel Monday, killing nine Jews and suffering seven killed themselves at the hands of British troops.

A third group comprises 400 Syrian Arabs and is led by Abdulla El Asmat, of Damascus. The fourth band is composed of several hundred Iranians and is led by Sheikh Salach Issa Laoh, a former lieutenant of Fawzi El Kaukaji, Syrian Arab who led the 1936 rebellion. This group is reportedly equipped with machine guns.

Troops and police the country over have been given a general stand-by order, with every available soldier and policeman on active duty.

Terrorists shot and killed Haj Farid Achmed Abdullah, chief of the village of Anebta, as he walked in the municipal garden at Tulkarem. Haj Farid was a prominent leader of the Arab moderate faction, which has opposed Haj Amin El Husseini, exiled ex-Mufti of Jerusalem, who is guiding the terrorist campaign from Syria.

The daylight post office robbery in Nablus yesterday netted the bandits $10,000 consigned to Barclays bank in Jerusalem.