NEW PALESTINE OUTRAGE

Chronicle (Levin), 4 March 1948, Page 5

NEW PALESTINE OUTRAGE

(N.Z-P.A.—

\ ' -Reuter*

j: '"■■■■ ^ Business Section In Haifa Biown Up

CoDvriaht)

Received Thursday, 9.40 a.m. JERUSALEM-, March 3.. . A tru^k load ' of explosives blew up 4n the business section of Stanton Street, Haifa, kiilJng a large number of people. , First reports said the blast was only slightly less intense than the Ben Yehuda Street exposion in. Jerusalem. The latest / list sets • the casualties at 15 Arabs killed and 27 injured, Heavy gunfire' followed the explosion which wfecked the seven-storey Salameh building and affected three blocks. The St'ern group sent messages to -.h'e newspapers claiming responsibility. ■ • Jn addition to -wrecking the Salameh building one of the city's tallest structures, the exvplosion smashed in two nearby houses, tore the roofs from several others, and smashed ,the windows of a number of buildings ineluding the Central Police Station 100 yards distant. The gunfire began immedi•ately -, afterwards and clerks and typists crouched on the •floors as bullets swept through the buildings. • The police said that the lorry laden with explosives was driven to the curb, near the Salameh building. The driver left and a terrific blast soon afterwards roeked the -area. Army bulldozers and rescue squads' rushed to the scene and tore piles of stone and plaster away from the killed and iniured. They had recovered the dead bodies of 11 Arabs, ineluding two policemen. By mid-day 27 injured had been taken to hospital. An armed Arab band attaeked a Jexvish village in the Saron district, killing two Jews and wounding three. ,The police have reported that ten Arabs were killed in fighting along the Jeru'salem-Jaffa Road yesterday Wheii Jews attaeked Arab snipers' liests. ...... -a. '" 'Tbfe t'otal deathToll s'ince the partitio'h decision is hpw nearly 1600. . The advance party .of six mem- ' bers of the United ' Nations' Palestine Commission secretariat, which landed at Lydda Airport yesterday, flew to jerusalem, avoiding a force of Arab guerrillas who- were apparently v aware of the party's arrival, and who were concentrated on the road between Lydda and Jerusalem. The. Arabs launched heavy attacks on road convoys before British troops drove them back .into the hill's. 4 6-