page_title: Night of the Beatings
section_title: Operation
hierarchical_section_title: Night of the Beatings / Operation
caption_attribution_description: Irgun poster after floggings
context_page_description: The Night of the Beating refers to an Irgun operation carried out on December 29, 1946 in the British Mandate of Palestine, in which several British soldiers were flogged in response to a similar punishment inflicted upon an Irgun member.
context_section_description: After Kimchi's sentence was carried out, armed Irgun squads were sent into the streets of Jewish cities throughout Palestine, with orders to abduct and flog British soldiers.
  In Netanya, armed Irgun men broke into the Hotel Metropole where they found Major Paddy Brett sitting with his wife in the lounge. He was whisked away from the hotel, led to a eucalyptus grove, where he was stripped to his underwear, had his "sentence" read out to him, and was given eighteen lashes. His trousers were confiscated for future use by the Irgun, and he was returned to the hotel still in his underwear. At Cafe Theresa in Rishon LeZion, Irgun fighters seized Sergeant Terence Gillam and flogged him the street. In Tel Aviv, two sergeants were kidnapped from the Armon Hotel, tied to a tree in a public park, and lashed eighteen times each.
  The unprecedented incident caused an outrage in Britain and prompted a strong hand policy. The flogging punishment was later abolished, but capital punishment was introduced.
  From 22:00 to 1:00 army cars drove around the streets of Tel Aviv and ordered the soldiers of the 6th Airborne Division to return to their bases. From Lod to Netanya, loudspeakers ordered the soldiers to return to their camps. 
  The British Army launched a large cordon and search operation in the Karton Quarter of Tel Aviv, and in Netanya, Petah Tikva and Rishon LeZion, to hunt for the perpetrators, placing curfews and questioning thousands of people.  In the Kfar Saba area, roadblocks were set and a car transporting five armed Irgun men (carrying a whip) was caught. One of them, Avraham Mizrahi, was killed when fire was opened at the car, while four others - Eliezer Kashani, Mordechai Alkahi, Yehiel Dresner, and Haim Golevsky - were captured.
caption: Irgun poster threatening to respond "with fire" to further lashing punishments.
exif: {}