LONDON: The British Air Ministry today [Jan 8] instructed Royal Air Force aircraft to regard as hostile any Jewish aircraft met over Egyptian territory. In a communique, the Air Ministry said four Spitfires and one Tempest aircraft had failed to return from reconnaissance missions inside the Egyptian frontier yesterday [Jan 7]. The RAF aircraft, it added, had strict orders not to cross the frontier into Palestine.

The `Israeli` authorities in Tel Aviv announced today that two [RAF] Spitfires were shot down over the Negeb area, southern Palestine, yesterday and that Jewish forces had captured one of the pilots. The planes had been engaged on `armed reconnaissance raids,` they said. Only the charred remains of the other plane were found.

This statement followed closely another Tel Aviv announcement that all fighting in the Negeb had ceased. It came almost simultaneously with a British Foreign Office announcement that the British Government had acceded to Transjordan`s request to send a British force to Akaba, Transjordan`s port situated at the head of the Gulf of Akaba near the Palestine frontier. ...