The Blowing-Up of the Garage in Haifa
On 28.2.48 at 09.00 the militia left in two cars to carry out the mission. The sapper Yaacoba Cohen, a 'Mistaarev' (Jewish fighter disguised as an Arab) was meant to drive the car carrying the explosives into the garage, to activate the 'pencil (a device with a delaying mechanism) and the mine. Then he would go outside and escape in a second car waiting nearby and driven by another 'Mistaarev', Yitzhak. In addition, two reserve cars were prepared as a rescue force in the event that the executing force ran into difficulties. They parked next to the 'Shell Bridge'.
Towards the end of February 1948, intelligence was received that – at one of Haifa's garages, in the 'fortified triangle' area - the Arabs were preparing a car bomb that would be exploded in the city's Suan Center. Danny Agmon, commander of the Palmach's 'Special Military Scouts' in the north, undertook to carry out an operation to foil this plot. To achieve this, a car was confiscated in the 'Krayot' area, and it was decided to fill the luggage compartment with a large quantity of explosives. It subsequently turned out, however, that the car belonged to the representative of a foreign state, and an instruction was given to release it.
Another car was confiscated in the Carmel and taken to an enclosed yard at the Technion on the Hadar Hacarmel mountain, where a crew began filling it with explosives. However, the planners of the action failed to find a 'pencil' to detonate the explosives. Yochai Bin-Nun, commander of the Palmach's 'Port Company', who had taken a course in sabotage with the British, said he had the know-how to make a time bomb.
Late one Friday night they woke up a certain chemist and took him to his dispensary, where he gave them sulfuric acid and other media that would assist Yochai Bin-Nun and Agmon to make an improvised pencil-activator.
The car was filled with about 300 kg of explosives in which two mines were installed. These were meant to act as a trap, if someone should attempt to inspect the car or start it.
Two "Mistaarvim” (fighters disguised as Arabs) Yaacoba Cohen and "Abu Scheik" (Yitzhak Shoshan) conducted a tour of the downtown Haifa area until they located the 'Abu-Shaam' Garage. There they found the car the Arabs had readied for exploding, painted and camouflaged as a 'Red Cross' car. The two passed Arab checkposts several times deliberately, so that they would not be recognized or pursued at the time of withdrawing.
On 28.2.48 at 09.00 the militia left in two cars to carry out the mission. The sapper Yaacoba , a Mistaarev, was meant to drive the car carrying the explosives into the garage, to activate the 'pencil' and the mine. Then he would go outside and escape in a second car waiting nearby and driven by another 'Mistaarev', Yitzhak. In addition two reserve cars were prepared as a rescue force in the event that the executing force ran into difficulties. They parked next to the 'Shell Bridge'.
After damaging the car, so that its entry into the garage for repair would seem authentic, they began traveling to the downtown area, passing three barriers set up by the Arabs on the way. The driver, Yaacoba, entered the garage and asked that the 'damaged' car be repaired. Fearing that this was a trap, the deputy manager of the garage refused to accept the vehicle for repair. Yaacoba started protesting vociferously and threatening him with legal action, since he was not cooperating with an Arab fighter who had come, so to speak, from Nablus on a mission of the National Committee. Yaacoba was asked to wait for the manager. After a few minutes, when he noticed that no one was paying any attention to him, he activated the mechanism. Then he quietly left the garage for Yitzhak's car, which awaited him and the two got away from the place.
They had hardly driven several meters when an enormous bang was heard. An English Jeep was driving in front of them, stopped abruptly in order to block the road. Yitzhak was unable to brake and hit the jeep. The English drew their guns and began to search the "Arabs" but found no weapons. Yitzhak scolded the jeep's driver in unblemished English – humorously – about the lack of politeness he had displayed by not signaling when he stopped, and the pair was released.
Back at the garage, some 30 people were killed and about 70 wounded. The double blast (of two cars carrying explosives) destroyed the garage completely.
Another car was confiscated in the Carmel and taken to an enclosed yard at the Technion on the Hadar Hacarmel mountain, where a crew began filling it with explosives. However, the planners of the action failed to find a 'pencil' to detonate the explosives. Yochai Bin-Nun, commander of the Palmach's 'Port Company', who had taken a course in sabotage with the British, said he had the know-how to make a time bomb.
Late one Friday night they woke up a certain chemist and took him to his dispensary, where he gave them sulfuric acid and other media that would assist Yochai Bin-Nun and Agmon to make an improvised pencil-activator.
The car was filled with about 300 kg of explosives in which two mines were installed. These were meant to act as a trap, if someone should attempt to inspect the car or start it.
Two "Mistaarvim” (fighters disguised as Arabs) Yaacoba Cohen and "Abu Scheik" (Yitzhak Shoshan) conducted a tour of the downtown Haifa area until they located the 'Abu-Shaam' Garage. There they found the car the Arabs had readied for exploding, painted and camouflaged as a 'Red Cross' car. The two passed Arab checkposts several times deliberately, so that they would not be recognized or pursued at the time of withdrawing.
On 28.2.48 at 09.00 the militia left in two cars to carry out the mission. The sapper Yaacoba , a Mistaarev, was meant to drive the car carrying the explosives into the garage, to activate the 'pencil' and the mine. Then he would go outside and escape in a second car waiting nearby and driven by another 'Mistaarev', Yitzhak. In addition two reserve cars were prepared as a rescue force in the event that the executing force ran into difficulties. They parked next to the 'Shell Bridge'.
After damaging the car, so that its entry into the garage for repair would seem authentic, they began traveling to the downtown area, passing three barriers set up by the Arabs on the way. The driver, Yaacoba, entered the garage and asked that the 'damaged' car be repaired. Fearing that this was a trap, the deputy manager of the garage refused to accept the vehicle for repair. Yaacoba started protesting vociferously and threatening him with legal action, since he was not cooperating with an Arab fighter who had come, so to speak, from Nablus on a mission of the National Committee. Yaacoba was asked to wait for the manager. After a few minutes, when he noticed that no one was paying any attention to him, he activated the mechanism. Then he quietly left the garage for Yitzhak's car, which awaited him and the two got away from the place.
They had hardly driven several meters when an enormous bang was heard. An English Jeep was driving in front of them, stopped abruptly in order to block the road. Yitzhak was unable to brake and hit the jeep. The English drew their guns and began to search the "Arabs" but found no weapons. Yitzhak scolded the jeep's driver in unblemished English – humorously – about the lack of politeness he had displayed by not signaling when he stopped, and the pair was released.
Back at the garage, some 30 people were killed and about 70 wounded. The double blast (of two cars carrying explosives) destroyed the garage completely.