British military headquarters in the “sealed area” of Jerusalem was heavily damaged in an Irgun attack early this morning in which one British officer was killed and eight wounded, three seriously. The building housed Brig. Gen. Edmund Davies, commander of the area, and his staff.
At about 4:20 a.m., a large hole was blasted in a wall surrounding the building, which was once a Syrian orphanage. Under covering fire of automatic weapons and small arms, a number of raiders placed four charges of explosives against the walls of the building itself. The explosions rocked the building and brought most of it crashing down. None of the raiders was apprehended, although large troop forces were rushed to the area and flares lit up the night skies.
A short while after the attack correspondents received telephone calls informing them that the Irgun had carried out the attacks and that “all our soldiers returned safely to their bases.” The Irgun, however, has announced that it was not responsible for the attacks in Tel Aviv Saturday night.
A new curfew was clamped on the Jewish area of Jerusalem later in the day. It will be in effect from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. daily. A dusk-to-dawn curfew was also put into effect in the North Palestine coastal area.
Several other attacks occurred during the night in various parts of the country, it was officially reported today. A military camp at Karku, near Hadera, was attacked at midnight by a small group of men using rifles, pistols and hand grenades. There were no casualties and no arrests. Near Tulkarm, southeast of Hadera, two military vehicles were fired upon. One soldier was wounded. Another was seriously injured when a jeep was blown up near the police camp at Sarona, on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.
A Jewish girl, Esther Tobi, 19, was seriously wounded last night by a soldier in the downtown section of Jerusalem. The soldier opened fire with a submachine gun on a crowd of people who had gathered to listen to a dispute between him, another soldier and a Jewish bus driver. The hail of bullets also struck a man, wounding him less seriously then the girl. Both soldiers have been arrested pending a military inquiry.
The Palestine Supreme Court today rejected an application for an order hisi to show cause why imposition of martial law in Tel Aviv should not be set aside and why courts there should not reopen. The petition was brought about by R. Turjeman, secretary of the Sephardic Community of Tel Aviv.
It was reliably learned here today that the military authorities are planning to extend and tighten their restrictions should the attacks on military installations continue. The situation will be discussed in detail at the plenary session of the Jewish Agency executive which opens here tomorrow.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
