One Jew, two policemen and two Arabs were killed in Haifa today when two armed groups of men attacked the city’s central police station and held up a bank there. Simultaneously, six other men held up a bank in Tel Aviv.
In Jaffa 14 Jews in three jeeps drove up to the police station and opened fire with submachine guns and pistols, while a second group set off a home-made gasoline bomb near the Barclay Bank on the main street and then invaded the building. In the half-hour gun battle outside the police station, the Jew and the two constables were killed.
As the remaining thirteen attempted to retreat they were encircled by mobile police forces and a crowd of Arabs. The Arabs surrounded three of the raiders in one jeep and almost succeeded in lynching them before the police arrested them. Five more Jews were captured by the mob, while five others escaped. All eight captured men were wounded.
At the bank, the other raiders wounded the bank manager who ran away from them, but were forced to leave the bank before they could obtain the keys to the vault. Another Arab mob attempted to halt them, but they made good their escape after throwing a hand grenade at the Arabs, killing two. Seven other Arabs were injured in the two battles. Later a sack of bank notes was discovered near the bank.
In the Tel Aviv hold-up no guns were fired, but a cashier was beaten when he attempted to resist the attackers. They made off with approximately $10,000.
All inter-urban traffic was cut off by police and hastily summoned troops, and traffic on the roads from both cities was halted and the vehicles searched. In Jaffa the Arabs aided the police in blockading side streets with barbed wire entanglements in preparation for a detailed search.
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.
