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of Gaza and Beer-Sheva . Jamal Pasha , who now took a more inflexible line , ordered the expulsion of the Jewish inhabitants from the expected battle zones , and especially from Tel Aviv . The city’s residents organized an “ emigrants ’ committee ” headed by Dizengoff . Dozens of wagons were sent from the moshavot to aid the deportees , including the pupils of the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium , who left in an organized fashion and were scattered throughout the country : from Petah Tikvah and Kefar Saba to the moshavotof Samaria and Galilee . Joseph Hayyim Brenner , a teacher at the Gymnasium and later to be one of Eretz Israel’s great writers , rode on one of the wagons . Jamal Pasha permitted a group of young people to remain in the city to guard its houses . Other young people , from the class that had just graduated from the Gymnasium , enlisted in the Turkish army as officers . Yet others joined the kibbutzim , and these would later be among the leaders of the labor movement : Moshe Shertok-Sharett ( the future Foreign Minister and Prime Minister ) , Eliyahu Golomb ( head of the Haganah ) , Dov Hoz ( a leader of the Histadrut ) , and David Hakohen ( one of the founders of Solel Boneh ) . The cruelty of the Turks was known to all , but they treated the Jews of Eretz Israel relatively moderately . This may have been due to pressure exerted in Constantinople by the American Ambasador , Morgenthau , himself a Jew , Morgenthau , and possibly also the result of intervention by the Germans , whose armed forces included many Jews . At any rate , when the British forces , led by General Allenby , launched their offensive toward the end of 1917 , the Turks were routed from their positions , and the British took the coastal plain by storm . On November 16 the British entered Jerusalem . On the same day , New Zealand soldiers conquered Jaffa , and the following day , a Scottish division commanded by General Hill took Tel Aviv . He crossed the Yarkon River over temporary bridges at night , and established his front line to the north of the river . The southern half of the land was now under British control , while the Turks still held its northern half . Several hundred residents returned to Tel Aviv . While the inhabitants of the north still endured the Turkish yoke , suffering from hunger and fearful , a festive atmosphere reigned in Tel Aviv . The English soldiers were friendly , and the Australians spoiled the children . Businesses appealing to soldiers - restaurants and beer halls - were quick to open . The city’s young women were friendly with the soldiers , and the officers were invited to the balls , parties , and concerts that were held in the city . Upon the British victory , and the end of the war on November 11 , 1918 , the Tel Avivians who remained in the north lost no time in returning to the city . By 1920 Tel Aviv already had 600 houses , a population of 2 , 084 , 5 kilometers of roads , and 340 trees . An electric generator powered 68 street lamps and the 756 light bulbs in the municipal committee’s offices and in the homes of some of the city’s wealthy residents . The rest of the houses were lit by kerosene and gas lamps . There were 35 drivers , 30 waggoners , and 12 donkey and camel drovers . In May 1921 , the first clashes between Arabs and Jews on nationalist grounds took place in Eretz Israel , with the riots spreading to Jaffa and the outskirts of Tel Aviv . A total of 43 Jews were killed , including the writers Joseph Hayyim Brenner , Zevi Schatz , and Joseph Luidor , who lived in an isolated house outside the city , among the orange orchards . The Arabs were unable to enter Tel Aviv itself , but a large number of the Jewish inhabitants of Jaffa moved to Tel Aviv . A month after the riots , the British authorities approved the establishment of a separate municipal council for Tel Aviv , headed by Meir Dizengoff . In the first years of the 1920 s , about 30 , 000 Jews resided in Jaffa , while there were some 14 , 000 in Tel Aviv . Those years marked the beginning of the Third Aliyah , whose immigrants founded kibbutzim and moshavim , organized themselves into Labor Battalions , and paved roads and worked in quarries .
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