JERUSALEM: At least 11 people were killed and 70 wounded, 20 seriously, when an explosive charge hidden in a parked car blew up in a crowded market place in the Jewish sector of Jerusalem today [Nov 22] ... About 100 Arab nationalists were immediately rounded up and questioned, and police threw up road blocks and established security cordons.

When the smoke cleared after the explosion, the car, which was parked outside a barber’s shop, had completely disappeared, leaving an eight-foot wide crater. The owner of the barber’s shop and one of his customers were killed ... The seats in the recognisable cars were splashed with blood.

The explosion took place at 9.30 a.m. in the Yehuda Market in the heart of the Jewish sector. Within seconds, the market, jammed with shoppers stocking up for the week-end Sabbath, was a scene of chaos as hundreds fled in panic. A crowd assembled rapidly in the market, with cries of “to the old (Arab) city”. An Arab taxi was stopped by furious Jewish youths as it was driving past the market, and completely destroyed.

Veterans said it was the worst incident to result from nationalist resistance against the Jewish “State” in 20 years. Prime Minister Levi Eshkol interrupted a vacation to hurry to Jerusalem to call a special Cabinet session.

Published in Dawn, November 23rd, 2018