Thirty police and scores of strikers were injured this week-end in clashes in the port area here in the worst outbreak of violence since the inception of the Israeli seamen’s strike now in its second month.
Thirteen police were hospitalized following pitched battles when a steel-helmeted force of 100 police sought to remove the striking crewmen from two freighters, the Tel Aviv and the Rimon. When the strikers refused to leave the ships, the police opened up on them with fire hoses from tugs and the strikers turned the ship’s hoses on the police. The crew of the Rimon agreed to leave the ship without further resistance but the crew of the Tel Aviv, barricading themselves in the engine-room, held out for several hours.
The crew finally agreed to leave the ship and marched off, to assemble near the seamen’s club in the port area. Several hundred other striking seamen broke into the port area, joined the crew of the Tel Aviv and began a demonstration. The strikers captured a police station in the port area and a pitched battle followed police attempts to dislodge them. The disorders ended only towards evening with the start of the Sabbath.
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