Dizengoff St., the fashionable “Champs Elysee” of Tel Aviv, was hit by Arab terrorists shortly after midnight today. Heavy property damage was caused when a parked car, apparently loaded with high explosives, blew up, destroyed four other parked vehicles and showered shrapnel and splintered glass 200 feet in all directions. Miraculously, only 11 persons on the crowded thoroughfare were injured, none of them seriously. An American couple, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Furman, of New York City, were hurt by flying glass. They were released from the hospital after treatment.
The explosion, which sent sleepy householders thronging into the streets, marked the second terrorist attack in Israel’s largest city since last September when a bomb blast in the Tel Aviv central bus terminal killed one person and injured about 70.
The El Fatah command in Beirut claimed credit. It said that guerrillas planted 265 pounds of TNT in an Israeli vehicle and that the explosives were detonated by a time fuse. Police arrested 20 Arab suspects from nearby Jaffa and an investigation was under way.
According to eye witness accounts, the explosives were planted inside or underneath an Israeli Army vehicle parked on Keren Kayemeth Blvd., near its busy intersection with Dizengoff St. The boulevard is largely residential and tree lined. Dizengoff St. is a broad avenue of fashionable shops, sidewalk cafes and movie theaters.
The explosion occurred at 18 minutes past midnight. Within minutes police had the area cordoned off as emergency vehicles, fire engines and ambulances converged. One of the first officials on the scene was Israel’s Defense Minister, Gen. Moshe Dayan. He told reporters that he was at General Headquarters when news of the blast came over the police radio.
A wide area of Dizengoff St. was littered with splintered glass from smashed shop and apartment house windows. Several trees were uprooted, a street lamp was wrecked and electric and telephone lines were ripped down by the force of the explosion.
A passer-by remarked that the scene was reminiscent of the Jewish neighborhoods in Berlin after the infamous “Crystal Night” in 1938. Armed guards were posted at damaged shops to prevent possible looting.
The terrorists’ aim was obviously to inflict death and injury on civilians. Dizengoff St. on a warm Sunday night is jammed with strollers window shopping or dropping in at a favorite cafe for an aperetif with friends. The surrounding neighborhood is one of the best in Tel Aviv.
Former Premier David Ben Gurion’s Tel Aviv home is only 300 yards from the scene of the explosion. Many of the city’s wealthiest businessmen and professionals have their homes nearby. Dizengoff St., named after the late Meir Dizengoff a former Mayor of Tel Aviv, was laid out in the mid-1930s on what a generation ago was largely farm land with an occasional blacksmith’s shop. It soon surpassed the older Allenby Rd. as Tel Aviv’s main business and shopping center.
Gen. Dayan had a busy night. After inspecting the damage and talking to witnesses, he visited some of the injured in the hospital. Residents of the area also stayed up late. As soon as the police barriers were removed, hundreds returned to the sidewalk cafes for iced coffee or vermouth and to discuss the events of the night.
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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.
