Alarmed and concerned at last night’s attacks by Jewish extremists on military installations throughout Palestine, the Jewish Agency and the Jerusalem Jewish Community Council today called on the Jewish population to take all possible measures “to prevent further crimes.”
In Tel Aviv posters in Hebrew appeared throughout the city, proclaiming “Thou Shall Not Kill” and asking the Jewish population to help combat terrorism. The Jerusalem Jewish Community Council’s appeal stressed that terrorism “is causing great harm to the Jews of Palestine and to the Zionist cause.”
Sir Henry Gurney, Acting High Commissioner of Palestine during the absence in London of Sir Alan Cunningham, today conferred with Isaac Ben Zvi, chairman of the Jewish National Council, and Rabbi Judah L. Fishman, acting chairman of the World Zionist executive, on the tense situation in the country. Following their talks, it was announced that a special meeting of the Zionist executive will be held here on Monday to consider the repercussions of last night’s attacks in which a British officer and a Jewish policeman were killed, and about 25 persons injured, including six Jews.
Tel Aviv, which was the scene of the major outbreaks, was under partial curfew most of the day as thousands of British troops hunted for terrorists in the Montefiora, Hatikvah and Shekhunat Ezra districts of the city. More than 60 of the over 3,000 persons interrogated were held for further questioning.
The troops, which were accompanied by tanks and armored cars, made rigid house-to-house searches, using magnetic mine detectors to search for hidden arms in cellars. Even synagogues were not immune, and searches were conducted while services were going on.
JEWS CRUELLY BEATEN DURING SCREENING; LOOTING ACCOMPANIES SEARCHES
Today’s radds were accompanied by looting, while many Jews were brutally beaten by soldiers during screening operations. At least ten Jews who were released after screening, required hospitalization. Seven of them were sent to the Government Hospital while three were taken to a Jewish hospital.
The soldiers conducting the searches in the Montefiore quarters took all nales to the nearby Hapoel sport grounds where barbed wire cages were set up for screening. Although not all of Tel Aviv was under curfew, all the streets of the city appeared deserted.
Shalom Bracha, a Jewish supernumerary policeman, who was wounded last night while on guard at Citrus House, British military headquarters, which was the target of attack, died this morning in the Government Hospital in Jaffa. A Jewish police guard was wounded today while escorting one of the Jews, wounded at Hadera, to the Beilinson Hospital in Tel Aviv. The ambulance struck a landmine near Nathanya. Five British soldiers were injured today, one of them seriously, when the jeep in which they were travelling was blown up by a landmine near the police station at Raanana, in the vicinity of Tel Aviv.
CURFEW IMPOSED ON ALL ROADS; SOLDIERS ORDERED TO CARRY ARMS AT ALL TIMES
A curfew was imposed today on all roads following reports by military authorities that the roads in various parts of the country have been mined and communications cut. The Palestine Government today repeatedly broadcast an appeal over the radio “to keep death off the roads.” At the same time, it was announced that the curfew will be lifted from coastal area as of tonight.
Troops throughout Palestine were ordered today to carry arms at all times and to walk in pairs when out of their barracks. The order emphasizes that these measures have become necessary “as a result of the recrudescence of terrorist activity and the threat to kidnap British soldiers of all ranks.” It was estimated in British circles today that about 200 men took part in the attacks on military quarters last night in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, Tiberia, Hadera and other points. The attacks, about twenty in number, were termed “a failure” by British officials.
An official communique says that the building opposite Citrus House in Tel Aviv, from where the attackers directed machinegun fire on the military headquarters “was blown up by a fire which broke out for an unknown reason.” The communique says that the concerted attack on Citrus House lasted more than a half-hour, during which one group of the attackers’ peppered the building with granades while the other group fired into it with machineguns.
The communique also reports that attempts were made to blow up the Army fire station at Hadera and that an attack was made on army installations in Tiberias. A Jewish girl who was working in Citrus House is among the wounded. According to eye witness reports, several of the attackers were also wounded in the exchange of fire at Citrus House, but were taken away by their comrades. The officers mess at the headquarters is packed with bullet holes.
Joseph Moskowitz, a Tel Aviv resident, was accidentally wounded in the leg during the shooting. Altogether there were ten persons injured in the exchange of fire, including five Jewish civilians who were caught in the line of fire.
The total casualties in Haifa are one officer killed and five soldiers wounded. A Jew was slightly injured when his car was fired upon by soldiers near Hadera when he did not stop when challenged. He was released after proving his innocence. Several British soldiers were injured when their jeep was blown up by an electrically detonated landmine near Kfar Sirkin.
The screening operations at Rehovoth, which atarted yesterday at dawn in a search for participants in the flogging of British soldiers, was completed today. Twenty-nine Jews were detained for further questioning, it was officially announced.
In the midst of the turmoil and unrest in Tel Aviv, it was announced that a forest will be planted on Jewish National Fund land by friends and associates of Israel Rokach, mayor of Tel Aviv. The planting will honor Rokach on the occasion of his 50th birthday. The group has announced that it has already collected funds for the first 5,000 trees.
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.
