Jerusalem embattled

the long version

Not since the Crusades has Jerusalem been besieged for as long as it was between March and July 1948, when the Arabs of Palestine, and later regular armies of the Arab states, laid siege to it. The 100,000 Jews of the city, sealed off from the world, lacked food, water and power; the entire city was a front line. This diary, an authentic contemporaneous record kept by a foreign correspondent and resident of the city, is an intimate account of the ninety-day ordeal and its effect on the lives of the men, women and children of Jerusalem, including the rapid deterioration of living conditions and the desperate attempts to break the siege. Harry Levin accompanied daring military operations in and around Jerusalem, and travelled along the "Burma Road", which the Jews built secretly by night across the mountains in an attempt to break free.