On February 26, 1948, a Jew was killed at the entrance to the Safed post office and this served the British as the reason for clos¬ing the post office. A room was rented at the Herzliya Hotel which served as a temporary office for the reception of ordinary and registered mail, (which was forwarded to the Rosh Pina post office) Postage stamps were purchased from Rosh Pina for cash. On Friday, April 16, 1948, the British Army suddenly evacuated the town and handed over all government and police buildings to the Arabs. The Jews were also forced to leave the temporary post office which was in the line of fire of the Arab police, and as Safed was besieged postal services were suspended. On May 2, 1948, Dov Geiger was appointed as Commissioner for the Postal Services in Safed, a temporary post office was opened at the premises of the Staff Officer to receive ordinary letters. Because there were no government postage stamps at Safed, 2,200 postage stamps of 10 mil each were printed in 2 settings, a postmark was made and was in use until May 19, 1948. The post office was opened on May 4. At the time, the town was still un¬der siege but military contact had been established with the outside world. No civilians were permitted to leave. The military (Haganah) undertook to forward the letters from Safed to the Rosh Pina Post Office, from where they were transferred to the normal postal channels. On May 15, (Sabbath) the first stamps of the State of Israel (Doar Ivri Issue) were received and were put on sale the following day. The Safed stamps were still accepted on letters for about another week. The Minhelet Ha'am postmark arrived at Safed only on May 19, and was first used the day after.