Evening star., 1948-01-05
f.
IS Still Missing
After BoInbingo j
Jerusalem Hotel
Five Are Known Decd
In Jewish Attack on
Arab Headquarters
BY ths Assoeia,sd'Prsss 4

I E"SS IsSS NSiAStS
BY fhs sAssoeiotsd'Prsss
-JERUSALEM, Jan. 5.-Rescuers
dug today into the debris of the
Semiramis Hotel for Is persons
missing after the three-story
stone structure was sleyeled by a
bomb which police said the Jew
ish underground had planted.
Five persons were known dead.
/. One informant said the hotel
was one Of five district, headquar- :
tiers for an Arab military group.
The known dead included Manuel
Salazar Travesedo, acting Spanish
consul Some II were injured.
:. "A similar act of violence occurred
yesterday In Jaffa, where Arab
headquarters was bombed and IS
persons were killed and about 100
injured. Police blamed the Stern
gang, the most extreme element Of
the Jewish underground.
Arab Meeting Place.
Hagana, the Jewish underground
defense force, said :. through a
spokesman at Tel Aviv that the
Jerusalem hotel attack was executed
because -the building was an i'm:
portant meeting place of Arab
gangs, where arms were distributed
to villages in the Jerusalem area"
, Unfortunately, we cannot hit at
the Arab bands imain) headquar-
ters as it Is secreted In q mosque"
the spokesman asserted.
Arab sources said the hotel was
owned by Greek woman. They
described the attack there and at
Jaffa as "reprisals" for the rioting
last week in a Haifa refinery in
which Al Jews were killed, after
Jews had bombed a line of Arabs
before the employment ONCE.
At least four persons were brought
alive from the hotel wreckage, one
a woman who had screamed in pain
for four hours before she was saved
Toll Rises to 563.
The Jerusalem and Jaffa bomb
ings increased to 563 the number
OF persons killed in Palestine since
the United Nations voted partition
on November 29.
The Semiramis Hotel, which Arab
leaders from other Middle East
countries were reported to have
used as q headquarters while in
Palestine, was almost completely
levelled. So terrific was the blast
that it shook houses miles away.
"A slashing rainstorm with a wind
OF gale proportions hampered rescue
workers during the early morning,
and screarnse of the injured still
could BE heard among the ruins six
hours after the explosion. Among
those listed Us missing was an as
sistant to the Spanish consul gen.
eral. q
It was the worst such incident
since the bombing OF the King
David Hotel In Jerusalem on
July 20, 1916, when nearly 100 per-
sons were killed by explosives
plduJCu Wy 1KSuh 1vdA bSAtAA,
Jewish underground group.
Grenade Tossed Into Lobby.
Details ais to the manner in which
the hotel was blasted were sketchy.
An Arab passerby told police that
three men who looked like Jews"
drove past the hotel and tossed a
hand grenade into the lobby.
Seconds later there was ire
mendous explosion-apparently from
q previously planted bomb.
Police, British troops and fire
brigade workers rushed to the scene
and joined in the gruesome task
of searching through the wreckage
in a hunt for injured.
The storm which drenched the
rescue workers was accompanied by
brilliant flashes Of lightning and
heavy peals of thunder-one of
which was so sharp that a soldier
guarding q road block fired burst
from his Stem gun in the belief
that another bomb had been
touched off.
Troops and police IN armored
cars were hurried into the area
where the explosion occurred to
guard against disorders and Hagana
patrols appeared on the streets in
Jewish residential quarters to guard
against possible Arab reprisal raids.
Gunfire Continues.
The blasted hotel is located in the
Katamon district from which Jewish
residents were evacuated last week
after ,Hagana advised that it could
not guarantee them protection.
Sporadic gunfire echoed through
out Jerusalem-from both the old
Walled City and the more modern
sections-for hours after the blast.
Main target of yesterdays bomb
ing in the Arab port of Jaffa was
(See PALESTINE, Page A-4l