In 1948, Nahariya was a small Jewish community located on the Mediterranean shore of the Western Galilee, about 40 km north of Haifa. The settlement was founded in 1933 by middle-class Jewish immigrants from Germany. The U.N. partition plan of November 29, 1947 placed Nahariya outside the borders of the proposed Jewish State. On March 17, 1948, the 1st Battalion of the "Palmach" ambushed an Arab ammunition convoy coming from Beirut to assist the Arabs in Haifa. The convoy was blown up and fifteen Arabs were killed, including the Haifa commander. In retaliation, the Arabs of Acre blocked the only road connecting Haifa with Nahariya, and Nahariya and the Western Galilee were under siege. When the road to Haifa was blocked, several Nahariya residents who had business in Haifa were stranded there, and could not return home. The solution was found, on March 20, when they chartered a motorboat from the "Ogen" cooperative in Haifa harbor, and returned home safely by sea. This local emergency sea-route operated from March 22 until May 21, 1948. The boat sailed to Haifa and back almost daily, except for Saturdays and Jewish Holidays. The letters were delivered by the boat to Haifa harbor, and from there were taken to the Mandate Post Office. The Minhelet Ha'am post functioned in Nahariya from May 6 until May 20, 1948, and Doar Ivri stamps were legitimately cancelled by Nahariya Minhelet Ha'am postmarks, as was the case in Safed and Jerusalem. The fee for sending mail from Nahariya by the emergency sea-route service was 20 mils. In order to ensure payment, each letter was marked with a special cachet indicating that the fee had been paid. These cachets were applied to the covers by a primitive device made up of a stencil and a small duplicating machine. The stencil was fragile and deteriorated quickly and so had to be replaced every few days. Seven slogans were in use during the siege of Nahariya. On April 25, 1948, the Municipality of Nahariya took over the Emergency-Mail service from Mishmar Ha'am. A new rubber canceller, known as Type 7, was put into use and local stamps were printed. This instrument and the stamps were used until May 21.