Arab terrorists struck at Haifa today. Three explosions rocked a fashionable residential section on Mount Carmel early this morning, killing one man, injuring 11 persons and causing severe damage. A fourth explosion this afternoon badly damaged a house in the Kiryat Sprinzak quarter where three more persons suffered slight injuries. Twenty persons, most of them Arabs, were detained for questioning as police cordoned off the stricken areas. Police alerted the population to search their houses, particularly the lower floors and cellers, for more bombs. Seven persons injured in this morning’s blasts required hospitalization.
The first explosion occurred at 4:30 a.m. local time in a building on Berl Katzenelson St. in the Neveh Shaanan quarter while most of the residents were asleep. Chaim Mankowitz. 55, a watchman at the Haifa Technion, was killed as the blast ripped through the floor of his first story flat. Part of the stairway was wrecked and occupants of the upper floors were evacuated by police and firemen.
The second explosion was in a building on Moriah St. at 6:30 a.m. Part of the building collapsed in smoke and flames. Several cars were damaged in an adjacent garage. Again the fire brigade evacuated residents. An infant was dropped from an upper floor onto a blanket held as a net by firemen. The child was not injured. The third explosion at 7:15 a.m. damaged a newly completed building on Wedgewood St. which was unoccupied. Neighboring buildings sustained slight damage.
Another infant, seven-month-old Doudou Francoise, miraculously escaped death or injury in the fourth. blast which occurred this afternoon. The child was buried under rubble for 40 minutes after an explosion wrecked four out of 12 apartments on the first floor of a residential building. Firemen extricated the baby after his parents had given up hope.
Some officials here believe the blasts were the work of the Palestine Liberation Organization whose headquarters in Beirut, Lebanon, was hit by mysterious rocket fire last week. The guerrilla group blamed Israeli agents and threatened to hit Israeli cities in retaliation.
Haifa is about 20 miles from the Lebanese border. Terrorists have sabotaged oil pipelines and parking lots in and around the city. The last attack occurred Aug. 31. Today’s explosions were the first terrorist strikes aimed at residential areas. Mount Carmel, which rises some 1,500 feet above Haifa Bay, is a section favored by affluent Israelis. Much of it consists of quiet tree-lined streets, sumptuous private homes, luxury apartment buildings and deluxe hotels.
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