Twelve Arabs were killed and 13 others wounded today in a bomb explosion in an Arab bazaar in the Old City quarter. Five hundred troops occupied the old City and cut it off from the new quarter of Jerusalem. Curfew; in effect since July 4, was extended to start at 6 p.m.
The blast raised the toll in Palestine disorders since July 5 to an estimated 52 Jews and 114 Arabs killed, and approximately 300 Arabs and Jews wounded. In addition, one British soldier has seen killed and nine have been wounded.
The bomb was thrown by Arabs in a clash with police after a huge store of arms had been discovered in the Mosque of Omar area. Additional searches in the vicinity of the mosque unearthed a second large arms store, including quantities of bombs.
The explosion occurred despite precautions taken by the police to prevent repercussions from the discovery of the first arms cache. Strong barbed-wire barricades had been erected and heavily armed guards posted at all entrances to the Old City. Ambulances transported the wounded to the Government Hospital.
Another bomb tragedy was narrowly averted by the timely discovery of a high explosive infernal machine near Hadassah Hospital in the center of the city, financed and maintained by the American women’s Zionist organization.
Arab violence continued in other parts of the country. A Jewish colonist, Yechiel Bauchmeier, was seriously wounded when a group of workers returning from the fields to the Meshek Haotzar settlement were attacked by a terrorist band. Jewish auxiliary policemen repulsed the assault.
With terrorism unabated in Haifa, several hundred resident American Jews appealed to United States Consul George H. Wadsworth for protection. A delegation urged Mr. Wads-worth to intercede with the authorities for an increased guard on Jewish buses traversing dangerous Arab quarters and for better protection in the residential and business sections. Action followed fruitless appeals to the authorities by the leaders of the Haifa Jewish Community and other Jewish organizations for improved security measures.
Three more deaths were recorded during attacks and clashes which resulted in the wounding of one Jew and 20 Arabs.
The fatalities included Gabriel Buek; 22-year-old Tiberias Jew, who died this morning of wounds sustained in an Arab attack last Saturday. The others were an Arab constable, Mohammed Ismain, killed last night in an Arab attack on a police station, and an Arab slain when troops fired into a crowd attempting to invade the Safed Jewish quarter after a bomb has exploded in the city’s Arab section, slightly wounding thee Arabs. Three Arabs in the Safed crowed were wounded by the troops’ fire.
An Arab linesman was wounded by a shot while working on a telephone pole near the Haifa law courts. The shooting was followed by a bomb and rifle attack on a Jewish bus in the Herzlia quarter, during which Dr. Loebe, a Jewish physician, was wounded. Jewish constables arrested an Arab sniper and Jacob Kendler, driver of the bus, who had fired in self defense.
Later in the day two bombs were thrown in the Burge quarter of Haifa, but no casualties resulted. Jewish buses were subjected to intensive searches following the bombings.
Incendiarism continued in Haifa, with two Jewish buildings, eight Jewish shops and an Arab bazaar set on fire. Looting by Arabs accompanied the blazes. Troops shot and wounded 12 Arabs in the village of Araba when they resisted search for terrorists who disguised as policemen, early this week killed three Jews in at attack on the colony of Givat Ada. Railway traffic between Haifa and Lydda was suspended when terrorists derailed a train near Lydda.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
