Bombs blasted a Lydda market and the British Consulate building in East Jerusalem today. Two local Arabs were injured in the Lydda explosion. No one was hurt at the Consulate but part of a room was wrecked and all windows were shattered.
Lydda is a town of mixed Arab-Jewish population about 10 miles east of Tel Aviv and is adjacent to Lydda Airport. Israel’s international air terminal. Three Arab suspects were arrested after the blast which occurred when the market was closed. Windows were smashed and some poultry killed. The explosives that went off at the British Consulate were planted on the window-sill of a secretary’s room. Consul General John Henry Lewen attributed the blast to rumors that Britain would sell Centurion tanks to Israel.
An attempt to bomb the Consulate last Friday failed when the explosives were discovered and detonated harmlessly in a nearby field. The discovery was made shortly after a bomb wrecked the Supersol supermarket in West Jerusalem, killing two Israeli students. Israel today suspended all permits for Arabs in Jerusalem who want to visit Jordan pending completion of the investigation into the supermarket blast.
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