The Irgun Zvai Leumi, Jewish extremist group, today acknowledged responsibility for yesterday’s bombing of the headquarters of the Palestine Government and of the British military at the King David Hotel in which 45 persons known to be killed and 58 are still missing.
In a “communique” delivered to foreign correspondents by unknown messengers, the Irgun said: “The tragedy which occurred at the Palestine Government offices was not caused by soldiers of the Irgun who carried out their duty courageously and with self-sacrifice. It was caused by the British themselves who disregarded a warning and refused to evacuate the building. The warning was given 27 minutes before the explosion was timed to go off.”
At the same time the Haganah, Jewish resistance movement, officially informed the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in a telephone message that the explosion in the King David Hotel was not the work of its organization. “We never engage in such dastardly acts,” the Haganah spokesman said over the telephone. The “Voice of Israel”, Haganah’s radio transmitter, has denounced the attack as “murder”.
Police today started mass arrests of Jews in Jerusalem. All Jewish men in the Montefiore section of the city were removed by troops and police for an identity check. A Jewish suspect arrested in the walled Old City during a search conducted there committed suicide. Another made an un successful attempt to commit suicide.
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.
