On July 22, 1946, the Jewish secret organization Aaraon carried out a bombing at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, which was considered the bloodiest during the period of the British Mandate.
The six-story King David Hotel was opened in 1932 and was considered the first of its kind and the newest in Palestine. It included the buildings of the British Palestine Administration and the main headquarters in its southern part, the British military telephone exchange in the basement, the Military Police and the Department of Criminal Investigations of the Palestinian Police in the annexed buildings, in addition to the presence of the French Consulate in the northern part.
Details of the installation of explosives in the hotel:
On the morning of July 22, 1946, at 11:45 a.m., a van loaded with armed men dressed in long Arab clothing, said to resemble servants’ clothing, drove up to the hotel grounds.
The militants took out seven milk cartons with explosives weighing about 350 kilograms and lowered them into the basement of the hotel, placing them next to the kitchen, near the supporting columns of the building.
The bombs were planted in the bunker, and the fuses were designed to detonate after 30 minutes. To remove passers-by from the street, the militants detonated a small explosive device, but the explosion of the device had the opposite effect, and instead of running away, people ran to look at the consequences of the explosion, while the explosion of the device also caused a passing bus to roll over, and the victims were taken to a hotel for first aid.
In his memoirs, Menachem Begin, who is primarily responsible for the attack, says that the explosion occurred at 12:10 pm and that two 16-year-old girls were asked to make three phone calls to alert the hotel management, the Palestine Post newspaper and the French consulate of the impending explosion.
The British later completely denied any warning and it was said that they later admitted in a closed session in court that they had received a warning but were unable to take any action due to lack of time.
Bombs exploded in the basement of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, causing part of the building to collapse, killing 91 people, including 41 Arabs, 17 Jews and 28 British.
That famous terrorist attack against the British was a response to the operation carried out by the British military police on June 29, 1946 against the Zionist secret organizations, during which several thousand people were detained and placed in camps near the cities of Latrun and Rafah.
The controversy still revolves around whether the British authorities gave 15 minutes’ warning before the explosion, as well as the role of the Haganah, a major military bloc of Jewish organizations, in carrying out the attack.
The Jewish Agency and the Haganah, after the bloody bombardment, tried to distance themselves from the operation and disavow it, “although in fact it was carried out at their request.”
An instruction received by the head of the Irgun underground, Menachem Begin, on July 1, 1946, from Haganah Chief of Staff Moshe Sneh stated: “Operations (Farh) and (Your Servant and Savior) must be carried out as soon as possible. Please let us know the exact date. Preferably at the same time. inform you in due time.”
The Israelis believe that the attack shocked the British and it “helped hasten their decision to withdraw from Palestine two years later” and they also believe that the bloody explosion is “still a matter of debate about its appropriateness and whether it was a terrorist act, in addition to being responsible for the great loss of life.”
The explosion at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem was so powerful that it took three days for rescue and debris removal, during which 2,000 trucks were loaded with the remains of the collapsed building. As for the human victims who died in that bloody operation, hardly anyone talks about this!
Source: RT
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