2,000 Jews Questioned in Ramath Gan in Hunt for Terrorists; Tel Aviv Curfew Lifted

More than 2,000 Jews were rounded up today in Ramath Gan, near Tel Aviv, in a search for terrorists who yesterday blew up the government information building in Tel Aviv and an adjoining home, killing a British officer. Fifty were held for further interrogation.

Fifty-four men were also held for interrogation in Tel Aviv after a curfew which was in effect for 15 hours was lifted. The curfew in Ramath Gan was raised several hours later. Several thousand British soldiers of the Sixth Airborne Division took part in the searches in Tel Aviv and Ramath Gan.

The mayor of Ramath Gan cooperated with the British and the townspeople offered no resistance. No weapons were found, but several boxes of illegal pamphlets and an underground printing press were discovered. Both the Jewish Agency and the Jewish National Council of Palestine have issued statements strongly condemning the perpetrators of the attack. Bloodhounds were used in the attempts to track down the attackers who escaped in an automobile. They were seen carrying off a wounded comrade with them.

The dead in yesterday’s attack included a British security officer, Major Desmond Doran, whose wife was seriously injured and hospitalized as a result of the blast which wrecked their home. Two Arab watchmen, who tried to halt the raiders, were killed in an exchange of gunfire. A ranking Jewish officer, Kolman Cohen, was shot in the shoulder when he attempted to interfere. Another British officer was hospitalized suffering from shock. A number of persons are believed to be buried in the debris of the two buildings.

Meanwhile, it was reported here that more blasts occurred in Nathanya and other towns and cities and that a British soldier was killed near Petach Tikvah while investigating an explosion. Explosions were reported near Caesarea and Tulkarm, and two more Britons were wounded near the latter city. Three British sappers were injured while removing mines on a road near Givat Brenner and an army ambulance struck a mine north of Hedera. The ambulance turned over and the driver suffered a broken arm.

From the Jewish fishing settlement of Sdoth Yam it was reported today that settlers there resisted British troops searching the area north of Hedera. Two Jewish youths were bayonetted by the British during the melee. They were removed under guard to a military hospital in Haifa. At Zikhran Yaakov, another settlement in the area, four Jewish women were arrested for refusing to identify themselves to police and soldiers.