Day 74 of 599 of מלחמת העצמאות MILḤEMET HAʾAẒMAʾUT (War of Independence)

The official report gives 680 passengers aboard the intercepted vessel: one man and one woman were hospitalized, and 678 others were transferred to the Ocean Vigour. The full account, The English Empire deported 678 יהודים YEHUDIM from חיפה HAIFA toward Cyprus., preserves the categories of 404 men, 213 women and sixty-one children and distinguishes departure from a verified arrival at a detention camp.¹

The transfer occurred between 13:00 and 16:05 according to the letter. Its claim that there were no untoward incidents concerns the reported conduct of the operation; it does not make deportation voluntary. The passengers' individual backgrounds and the fate of those taken to hospital remain unestablished.

The diary records figures supplied by אבא חושי ABBA ḪUŜI for the refinery and port: 204 workers among יהודים YEHUDIM and seven hundred Arabs at the refinery, and approximately seven to eight hundred and thirteen hundred respectively at the port. These are planning estimates reported in a meeting, not a checked employment census.²

The figures showed that the ability to keep essential installations working depended on people, skills and organized security. Proposals to strengthen the community's position at the port did not themselves constitute a takeover. Authority over the port, the navy's interception powers and the workers' daily presence were different kinds of control.

The supplied research also raises a report of loudspeaker warnings to Arab residents in Talbiyeh. The original police record and exact occurrence date have not been recovered. Later newspaper reporting of warnings should be studied as its own evidence, without turning an uncertain 11 February assignment into a documented evacuation or expulsion. The securely dated transfer and port discussion provide substantive coverage of this day without requiring that inference.

This is Day 74 of the 599-day civil-date series: 1948-02-11. The register maps its daytime portion to א׳ באדר א׳ ה׳תש״ח 1st 𝑜𝑓 Adar I, AM 5708; after local sunset the Hebrew day changes to ב׳ באדר א׳ ה׳תש״ח 2nd 𝑜𝑓 Adar I, AM 5708. This is a calendar conversion convention, not evidence that every reported act happened in daylight.

The ship letter explicitly fixes the operation to 11 February and daytime hours, supporting 1 Adar I. The diary independently dates the port discussion to 11 February. The letter's signature and UN circulation fall on 12 and 16 February. The Talbiyeh lead lacks a secure occurrence date and supplies no separate dated event here.^{3 4}

• Which actions were carried out, and which were proposals or later reports?
• How do the named people and institutions clarify what was at stake?