יומנים > יומן - מלא 30/04/1948

April 30, 1948 At a quarter to one I returned to Tel Aviv by plane. The sky began to clear at morning. One airplane came and brought David [Shaltiel] (his command was restored and the Harel battalions will remain in Jerusalem only until the operation in the city is over-after Katamon, the capture of A-Tur). The [St. Simon] monastery in Katamon was captured overnight, but the battles lasted until I left town. The governor and the [British] army demanded the evacuation of the monastery (when it was in the hands of the Arab gangs, they didn't know it was a monastery), but when I returned to Tel Aviv I was told that the Arabs had sent reinforcements to storm the monastery, where 200 of our men were staying. - In Tel Aviv, I found out that [Kibbutz] Gesher was pummeled-the first operation of the third phase of the war!-even though a cease-fire had been arranged with the intervention of a representative of [Avraham] Rosenberg. - In the evening, Yisrael [Galili] told me that "Golani" [Moshe Mann] came and asked for permission to blow up the bridge near Naharayim, and Yisrael agreed. Afterwards, Abba [Khoushy] called him up [and said] it's a violation of the agreement with Transjordan. I asked Yisrael to tell "Golani" to refrain from doing it. - In Jaffa, the general proposed a cease-fire until May 15, so that the road will be free as far as Bet Dagan and we will pull back 150 meters within Manshiyye. It's not clear whether the IZL [which holds Manshiyye] will agree to this. In the evening I visited Salameh, which was abandoned [after Operation Hametz]-only one blind old woman remained. Our men think most of the Arabs had fled by then.