Five Jews and four Arabs were wounded today in Tiberias, an aged Jew killed near jerusalem and an Arab and Jewish policeman wounded in an outburst of violence on the eve of the opening of formal hearings of Britain’s Palestine Partition Commission.
In Tiberias, north Palestinian seaport, where comparative quiet had reigned for a year, the wounding of four Arabs in a bomb explosion this morning raised tension to the point where crowds attacked Jews in the streets, injuring five.
The bomb exploded among a pile of stones prepared for a building near the market. A British constable chased an Arab whom he noticed escaping after the explosion and met with a hail of stones from Arab cafes. Six members of the extremist Zionist Brith Trumpeldor, in a road-paving crew were detained for investigation in connection with the blast.
Meanwhile, fury spread among the Arabs. Jewish shops and houses were stoned, Jewish pedestrians beaten and a group of Jewish workers defending themselves were attacked, one of their number, Yechia Ibn Chazera, being stabbed and wounded. Police broke up the clash, arresting an Arab and Jew. Arab mobs attacking Jews elsewhere in the city wounded four.
A strong attack was launched at sundown on Hanita, Northernmost and newest Jewish colony. A ghaffir (auxiliary policeman) named Ezekiel Munczik, 20 years old, was seriously injured. The attack continued into the night.
Sergeant Ayish Zilbi of the Criminal Investigation Department was fired upon and critically injured near the Wadi Rushmieh quarter of Haifa. His assailants escaped. Jacob Itzahaki, 55-year-old Jewish tinsmith, was stabbed to death by two Arabs while walking from the Beth Hakerem suburbs of Jerusalem to Yefe Nof. His Murderers escaped.
With troops concentrated in northern Palestine to uproot an Arab terrorist band, a small band crossed the border from Syria despite a fusillade from Syrian gendarmes.
Havas News Agency said two British soldiers were critically wounded yesterday, one believed mortally, by Arab terrorists near Abougegh on the Jaffa-Jerusalem road.
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