Palestine's Second Big Blast Kills 20

Northern Advocate, 6 January 1948, Page 5

Palestine's Second Big Blast Kills 20

JERUSALEM, Mon. (10 a.m.)—The Spanish Consul (Senor Manuel Selasar), who is related to the _ DuLe of Alba, was among the 20 killed when the Simiramis Hotel in Jerusalem was- blown up early this morning. > 'twenty people were killed. Six bodies have been recovered and Royal Engineers are searching for survivors and removing the rubble with bulldozers and acetylene torches. The hotel was reported to have been the headquarters of the Arab national youth organisations Najjada and Futuwah.

This was Palestine’s second big explosion in 24 hours, the Arab Committee's building in Jaffa having been destroyed earlier.

The Jerusalem explosion occurred during a heavy storm. The Semiramis Hoteli was of three storeys, and was built of stone. Eye-witnesses said the scene of the explosion in Jaffa was like a slaughterhouse, with the dismembered bodies of men, women and children lying in the wreckage. In a house-to-house hunt in Jaffa, British troops and police have detained 50 Jews for interrogation as a result of the explosion. Mr Moshe Shertok, one of the Jewish Agency leaders, said at a Press conference today that the agency had asked the United Nations for an international police -force to maintain security pending the creation of separate Jewish and Arab countries.

If the police force was refused the agency had requested arms for the Haganah. The Arab Higher Executive Committee defying the United Nations partition decision announced that it would in February establish a “national administration for all Palestine,’’ says a Cairo message.