Description
1948 War of Independence interrupted mail: 16 Jan 1948 postmarked local TEL AVIV registered cover on imprinted business postal stationary, sent from investment business to addressee at Daniel Street in the city; franked 25 mils per the period postage rate (10m letter + 15m registry fee) & tied by 2x strikes of the oval registry division postmark on front + 2x on back. The street is located in what was then the southern end of Tel Aviv across from the Hassan Beck Mosque, from where snipers fired into Tel Aviv: here the letter could not be delivered due to the security situation & the postman specifically wrote in Hebrew on the back "Dangerous area" ('Ezor Mesukan'), signing it "Sami" dated 19 Jan.
The address was crossed off in red crayon and the letter was held at the "Returned Letter Duty" office for the addressee to pick up - but remained unclaimed, so the cover front was stamped with a Hebrew instructional marking "Not Claimed at RLD" (Returned Letter Duty) whereupon the addressed was crossed off and return address circled; the back was stamped with an English NOT CLAIMED instructional marking with an additional notation in Hebrew "Left the House", to indicate the reason for non-delivery. Opened gently at back.
Per press reports of the period, on 17 Feb. it was reported in "HaMashkif" newspaper that mail in the Florentine neighborhood had ceased to be delivered although on 2 March a reply in the name of the Tel Aviv postmaster noted that mail was indeed being delivered as normal - except in the area near the border with Jaffa (eg. Salameh Street), whose residents were asked instead to come to the "Tel Aviv post office" and pick up their mail at the 'poste restante' counter. Here this cover predates the 'poste restante' procedure, which is observed on mail from the period of April 1948 into 1949. Significant postal history of the War of Independence, documenting the tribulations even in Tel Aviv.