HAIFA OUTRAGE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22447, 30 September 1947, Page 3

HAIFA OUTRAGE

TERRORISTS’ ACT' POLICE H.qTbLOWN UP SEVEN MEN KILLED (N.Z.P.A. —Reuter—Copyright.) (10 a.m.) JERUSALEM, Sept. 29. “Three British policemen and four Arab policemen, and one Arab coffee vendor were killed, and three British policemen seriously injured and 27 other police and 17 Arab civilians weie slightly injured this morning when an explosion virtually demolished the police station at Haifa, states an offick 1 report. A lorry drove to the edge of t'.e barbed wire barricade- The occupaivs lowered a barrel of explosives aui rolled it into the perimeter. The Assn-! ciated Press correspondent says the ex- • plosion shattered the windows of five blocks of Kings way in which thepoli.'e station is situated. An eye-witness reports that a bus carrying 40 or 50 passengers was passing the station as the blast occurred. Many passengers were injured. The explosion killed the Arab guard who gave the alarm. Falling debris 50yds. away killed the Arab coffee vendor. Power and telephones were cut off and a water main was broken.

Rescue workers are digging in the ruins for the dead and injured. The police said the Stern Gang pro! - - ably planted the bomb, which they brought to the police station in a trailer attached to a truck. Four Jews havo been detained by the police. The Irgun Zvai Leumi announced :t was responsible for the explosion, which v/as in retaliation for the transferring of the Jewish refugee ships to Hamburg on September 7 and to Famagusta cn September 28.

British troops in Bren-gun carrier. l , tanks and armoured cars strung barbr l wire barricades across the streets u> isolate the lower part of Haifa from tha predominantly Jewish section. The Jews in the camps at Lube:’:, who landed from the British ships on September 7, are still ignoring the offer of French sanctuary. French consular officials announced, over the camps’ amplifiers that they would make their final offer today. Children gathered round the amplifiers and sang and catcalled to drown the broadcast.

The death of an Arab girl who was hit by the debris, brought the fatalities in the explosion to nine. The bomb which caused Palestine’s biggest explosion since the King David Hotel outrage in 1946 was contained in two oil' barrels welded end to end and surrounded by two large motor tyres. The barrel was released by a special mechanism from the lorry which was subsequently found abandoned. The bomb was then rolled down a ramp on the lorry constructed high! enough to clear the wire “apron” pro-, tecting the building. The tyres then carried the barrel until it hit the side of the building. The announcement that Britain might, withdraw from Palestine was only ai British manoeuvre to meet the circumstances of the moment and did not mark a change in the fundamental! British policy, said El Husseini, the ! former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. He added that the Arabs must not weaken their opposition or slacken their preparedness. Mr. David Ben-Gurion, chairman of the Jewish Agency, commenting on the British statement at the United Nations on Palestine, claimed that the, British had been largely responsible' for the difficulties in achieving an un-, demanding between Arabs and Jews. He said it was now clearer than ever that there could be no settlement nor could Palestine become really independent unless a- Jewish State was established. The Jews would make every effort td, achieve co-operation with the Arabs.! The Jews must be both able and will- 1 ing to implement a settlement of tha| problem on the basis of Jewish Statehood.