TERRORIST RAIDS ON BANKS

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24981, 16 September 1946, Page 5

TERRORIST RAIDS ON BANKS

Troops’ Search Of

Tel Aviv 36 ARRESTS IN JAFFA (N2. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 8.30 p.m.) JERUSALEM, Sept. 14. The police to-day arrested 36 Jews in connexion with the raids by terrorists on two banks in Jaffa yesterday. Three of those arrested were wounded and four carried arms. Paratroopers of the 6th Airborne Division threw up barbed wire road blocks in the centre of Tel Aviv and began a search for the terrorists who raided the Ottoman Bank on Friday. Twenty-three young Jews were arrested early this morning in a surprise search of Haifa and were transferred to the Rafah detention camp in the south of Palestine.

A Jew was slightly wounded in the old city of Jerusalem this afternoon when unidentified Arabs fired on three Jews.

“When Jewish terrorists fired on an Arab policeman and attacked Arab property at Jaffa, during the bank raids, they broke a seven years’ armistice between Arabs and Jews and began what might become a new chapter, in the history of Palestine,” says the Exchange Telegraph Agency’s correspondent. “The Jews tried to fix responsibility for the attacks on the Stem Gang, but it is generally believed to have been carried out by the Irgun Zvai Leumi, which now has 9000 active members and thousands of sympathisers. “Moderate Jews fear that Friday, *l3, might prove “black Friday” for Zionism. The Haganah radio, ‘Voice of Israel,’ condemned the Irgun Zvai Leumi ‘for random robberies and irresponsible murders.’ The woman announcer added that the outrages had not the approval or backing of Palestine Jews. Arab Attitude

The Arab Higher Executive has sent a Note to the Palestine Government placing on the Government responsibility for anything that happened if Jewish acts of terrorism recurred in the Arab quarter. The executive has called a special meeting of the Arab Boycott Committee to discuss a further tightening of the boycott against Zionist goods. Jewish terrorists on Friday morning simultaneously attacked branches of the Ottoman Bank in Jaffa and Tel Aviv, and the Arab National Bank in Jaffa. Two Arab police, two Arab civilians, and one terrorist were killed. A British bank manager, Mr James Annett, was shot through the leg. Six armed, masked men, rushed into the Ottoman Bank at Tel Aviv and forced the manager at gun-point to hand over two sacks of money containing £9OO. One sack filled with bank notes was later found lying in the street.

In the attack on the Ottoman Bank in Jaffa, the terrorists used hand grenades, collected money and placed it in a sack, later recovered by the police. The attacks on the Ottoman Bank and the Arab National Bank were beaten off by personnel from a neighbouring police station, against which a diversionary attack was being made.

Several of the terrorists were wounded in a battle which followed the robbery attempt at Jaffa. Six of them were arrested after being manhandled by a crowd of Arabs. They are believed to be members of the Stem Gang. Terrorists cruising past the scene in a car, fired at the crowd with tommyguns and casualties resulted. Three other Jews believed to be implicated in the attack were arrested in a nearby building in which a number of small arms were found.

The Associated Press correspondent says dozens of Jews were responsible for the attempt against the Ottoman Bank. They failed because they ran into Arab civilian opposition and police gunfire. A curfew was imposed both in Tel Aviv and Jaffa.

Eight thousand British troops with fixed bayonets lined the streets of Jaffa on Friday night on guard against possible Arab reprisals against the Jews. The police officer said extra precautions were being taken in the border areas between Tel Aviv and Jaffa in anticipation of a possible flare-up between Jews ai?d Arabs. Tel Aviv residents, after the attacks, flocked into the streets in thousands to buy food in anticipation of the curfew being prolonged.