Obviously the IOF, which knew there was trouble brewing and ought to have been there protecting civilians, had deliberately stayed away.

Robbie needed seven stitches to repair the wound to his left ear. James had
been hit in the left eye by a rifle butt and had been beaten in the ribs. My injuries were less severe and it turned out I have no broken bones. Poor
James, who had pneumonia two weeks before leaving for Palestine, has
fractures of one or more ribs and is currently in Hadassah Hospital in
Jerusalem.

Mary Hughes-Thompson
battered and black and blue but determined to continue the fight -- perhaps
in a rather less physical way.