23 FEBRUARY 1918, Page 2

General Allenby, having opened railway communications between Cairo and Jerusalem,

began a new offensive on -Thursday week, when he advanced for two miles in the hills en either side of Mukhmas , the old Michmash, eleven miles north-east of Jerusalem. On Tuesday he made a further advance on a front of fifteen miles to the east of Jerusalem, and secured all his objectives to a -depth of two miles before nightfall. On Wednesday he pushed on to within four miles of Jericho, at the foot of the pass oommanded by the heights that he was attacking. When Jericho is occupied, the Turks will presumably have to evacuate the country west of the Lower Jordan and the Dead