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List of Lehi operations

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The following is a partial list of Lehi operations. Lehi split from the Irgun in August 1940, and dissolved in late 1948.

Operations by year

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1942

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  • May 1 – Attempt on Assistant Superintendent Geoffrey J. Morton, head of the CID in Tel Aviv and Jaffa and the policeman who killed Avraham Stern, with a huge improvised explosive device containing sixty sticks of gelignite which was hidden in a roadside ditch. It was detonated as a car containing Morton, his wife (who worked in Jaffa as a teacher) and bodyguards passed an orange grove close to their home. Because the car had moved out to overtake a bicycle they were not caught by the full force of the blast and although their car was wrecked the occupants escaped with concussion.[1][2][3]

1944

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  • January 28 – Failed attempt to blow up St. George's Cathedral, Jerusalem, at the wedding of the Marquess of Douro to Diana, daughter of the British general Douglas McConnel.[4]
  • February 14 – Two British constables were shot dead when they attempted to arrest Lehi fighters pasting up wall posters in Haifa.[5]
  • March 13 – Lehi kills a Jewish CID officer in Ramat Gan.[5]
  • March 19 – A Lehi member was shot dead while resisting arrest by the CID in Tel Aviv. Lehi retaliated with an attack in Tel Aviv that killed two police officers and wounded one.[5][6]
  • March 23 – Lehi attack in Jerusalem kills a police officer and wounds another.
  • August 8 – Attempt on Harold MacMichael, high commissioner for Palestine and Transjordan. Both he and his wife narrowly escaped death in an ambush that Lehi had mounted on the eve of his replacement as high commissioner. During his tenure, MacMichael was the target of seven unsuccessful assassination attempts, mainly by the Lehi. This was the last one.[7]
  • September 29 – Assassination of CID officer Thomas James Wilkin. Wilkin was the Commander of the Jewish Division and right-hand man of Geoffrey J. Morton (see Shoshana Borochov).[8]
  • November 6 – Lord Moyne, British Deputy Resident Minister of State in Cairo was assassinated by Lehi members Eliyahu Hakim and Eliyahu Bet-Zuri; this operation triggers The Hunting Season. Moyne's driver was also killed. Hakim and Bet-Zuri were executed for the murders.

1945

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1946

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  • In 1946, several British high officials, including Sir Stafford Cripps, Ernest Bevin, and Anthony Eden received letter bombs apparently sent by Lehi.[9]
  • February 26 – Irgun and Lehi fighters attacked three British airfields and destroyed dozens of aircraft. One Irgun fighter was killed.[10]
  • April 25 – Lehi fighters attacked a Tel Aviv car park that was being used by the British Army's 6th Airborne Division, killing seven British soldiers and looting the arms racks they found. They then laid mines and retreated.[11]
  • June 17 – Lehi attacked railroad workshops in Haifa. Eleven Lehi members were killed during the attack.[citation needed]
  • September 9 – Two British officers were killed by an explosion at a public building in Tel Aviv. A British police sergeant, T.G. Martin, who had identified and arrested Lehi leader and future Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, was assassinated near his Haifa home.[12]

1947

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  • In 1947, several letter bombs were sent to President Harry Truman in the White House. They were intercepted by White House mail room workers, who were on alert because of similar looking letter bombs sent to British officials.[9][13] Former Lehi leader Nathan Yellin-Mor admitted that letter bombs had been sent to British targets but denied that any had been sent to Truman.[14]
  • January 12 – A Lehi member carried out a truck bombing of a police station in Haifa, killing two British and two Arab constables, and wounding 140.[citation needed]
  • April 23 - Lehi mines a train outside Rehovot. The bombing kills five British officers, two Arab adults and a 3-year old, Gilbert Balladi.[15]
  • April 25 – Lehi bombed a British police compound, killing five policemen.[citation needed]
  • May 4 – Acre Prison break – Irgun members working with Jewish prisoners inside Acre Prison managed to blow a hole in the wall, and assault the prison, freeing 28 Jewish prisoners. Nine Irgun and Lehi fighters, including commander Dov Cohen, were killed during the retreat.[16] Five Irgun fighters and eight escapees were later captured.
  • May 15 – Two British soldiers were killed and seven injured by Lehi. A British policeman was also killed in an ambush.
  • June 4 – Eight Lehi letter bombs addressed to high British government officials, including Prime Minister Clement Attlee, were discovered in London.[citation needed] A British soldier was killed in Haifa.[17]
  • June 28 – Lehi fighters opened fire on a line of British soldiers waiting in line outside a Tel Aviv theater, killing three soldiers and wounding two. One Briton was also killed and several wounded in a Haifa hotel. A Jewish fighter was also wounded.
  • June 29 – Four British soldiers were wounded in a Lehi attack at a Herzliya beach.[citation needed]
  • September 3 – A postal bomb sent by either Irgun or Lehi exploded in the post office sorting room of the British War Office in London, injuring two.[18]
  • September 26 – Irgun fighters robbed a bank, killing four British policemen.[19]
  • November 13 – Lehi grenade attack on British soldiers in cafe leaves 1 dead and 27 wounded.
  • November 19 – Lehi summarily executes five adult members of the Shubaki family in the village of Arab al-Shubaki.
  • December 25 – Lehi members machine-gun two British soldiers in a Tel Aviv cafe.[citation needed]

1948

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  • Lehi Wanted members 1. Jaacov Levstein (Eliav), 2. Yitzhak Yezernitzky (Shamir), 3. Natan Friedman-Yelin
    Lehi Wanted members 1. Jaacov Levstein (Eliav), 2. Yitzhak Yezernitzky (Shamir), 3. Natan Friedman-Yelin
  • Lehi Wanted members Yaacov Levi, Moshe Bar Giora and Yehoshua Cohen
    Lehi Wanted members Yaacov Levi, Moshe Bar Giora and Yehoshua Cohen

Rejected plans

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When discussing ways to assassinate the British Army commander in Mandatory Palestine, General Barker, the group considered a bombing, but were having difficulty working out how the bomber would escape. A young disabled woman, who was a member of the group and hosting the meeting at her home, volunteered to do the bombing as a suicide mission.[28][29][30] She said "my life is not a life" and "Let my soul die with the Philistines [he]" an expression from the Hebrew Bible that means: after seeing that an enemy cannot be defeated, deciding to take revenge on the enemy and causing both harm to the enemy and one's self to be harmed, sometimes referred to as the "Samson Option".[28][29][30] But other members of the group rejected her offer, and she might not have been physically capable of the mission.[28][30][29]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ The Times (London) 23 December 1996, Geoffrey Morton
  2. ^ Nachman Ben-Yehuda, Political assassinations by Jews: a rhetorical device for justice.
  3. ^ Geoffrey J. Morton, Just the Job: Some Experiences of a Colonial Policeman (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1957
  4. ^ Obituary for the Duchess of Wellington, The Daily Telegraph; accessed 11 January 2019
  5. ^ a b c Bell, 1976
  6. ^ Johnston, Robert (April 5, 2015). "Terrorist attacks in British Palestine". www.johnstonsarchive.net. Retrieved 2017-05-29.
  7. ^ Ben-Yehuda, Nachman (1993). Political Assassinations by Jews: A Rhetorical Device for Justice. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. p. 204.
  8. ^ Bergman, 2018, pp. 3-5
  9. ^ a b Smith and Morris, 1949, pp. 229–230
  10. ^ "ETZEL". Archived from the original on 2023-05-02. Retrieved 2017-05-29.
  11. ^ "The Tel Aviv Car Park attack April 1946 - ParaData". Archived from the original on 2014-02-02. Retrieved 2017-05-29.
  12. ^ Marton, 2011
  13. ^ Pace, Eric (1972-12-02). "Letter-Bombs Mailed to Truman in 1947". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-05-29.
  14. ^ N. Ben-Yehuda (2012). Political Assassinations by Jews: A Rhetorical Device for Justice. SUNY Press. p. 331. ISBN 9780791496374.
  15. ^ Palestine Terrorists Kill 8 In Bombing of Troop Train NY Times, April 23, 1947
  16. ^ "Acre Jail Break". Britains-smallwars.com. Archived from the original on 2008-07-27. Retrieved 2011-03-27.
  17. ^ "events:1947 - British Forces in Palestine".
  18. ^ The Sunday Times, Sept 24 1972, p. 8
  19. ^ Donald Neff, Hamas: A pale image of the Jewish Irgun and Lehi Gangs. Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.
  20. ^ Yoav Gelber, 'Palestine 1948', p. 20; The Scotsman newspaper, 6th January 1948; Walid Khalidi states that 25 civilians were killed, in addition to the military targets. 'Before Their Diaspora', 1984. p. 316, picture p. 325; Benny Morris, 'The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1949', Cambridge University Press, p. 46.
  21. ^ Bose, Sumantra (2007). Contested Land. Harvard University Press. pp. 230–231. ISBN 9780674028562.
  22. ^ Kana'ana, Sharif and Zeitawi, Nihad (1987), "The Village of Deir Yassin", Bir Zeit, Bir Zeit University Press
  23. ^ Morris, 2004,: Chapter 4: The second wave: the mass exodus, April—June 1948, Section: Operation Nahshon, p. 238
  24. ^ Milstein, Uri (1998) [1987]. Alan Sacks (ed.). History of the War of Independence IV: Out of Crisis Came Decision (in Hebrew and English). Translated by Alan Sacks. Lanhan, Maryland: University Press of America, Inc. ISBN 0-7618-1489-2.: Chapter 16: Deir Yassin, Section 12: The Massacre, page 376-381
  25. ^ Morris, Benny (2005). "The Historiography of Deir Yassin". Journal of Israeli History. 24 (1): 79–107. doi:10.1080/13531040500040305. S2CID 159894369.: page 100-101
  26. ^ britannica.com
  27. ^ Cesarani, 2009
  28. ^ a b c "Raskin, Fania – Freedom Fighters of Israel Heritage Association". Archived from the original on 7 July 2022. Fania then spoke up and volunteered herself. She was sure that for an operation such as this, she would find the strength to stand and walk. "My life is no life anyway" she added. This was a "Let my soul die with the Philistines" proposal, the Samson option. Of course, her suggestion was rejected. Fania Raskin passed away on July 20, 1947, in Jerusalem. She was thirty-one.
  29. ^ a b c Lehi People לחי אנשים (PDF) (in Hebrew). Tel Aviv. 2002. p. 800. Archived from the original (pdf) on 21 December 2024. Retrieved 21 December 2024. כאשר תוכננה התנקשות בגנרל בארקר, מפקד הצבא הבריטי בארץ־ישראל, הועלה רעיון, שבחורה תטייל עם עגלת תינוק, שתתפוצץ כאשר הגנרל יעבור לידה. נשאלה השאלה איך הבחורה תצליח להסתלק לפני ההתפוצצות. כאן התפרצה פניה והציעה את עצמה. בשביל פעולה כזאת, אמרה, היא תמצא כוחות לעמוד וללכת. ״ממילא חיי אינם חיים״, הוסיפה היא התכוונה לפעולת ״תמות נפשי עם פלשתים״. הצעתה נדחתה, כמובן. פניה רסקין הלכה לעולמה ב־-20.7.1947ג׳ מנחם אב תש״ז, בירושלים והיא בת 31. [ …The question was asked how the girl would manage to get away before the explosion. Here, Fania burst out and offered herself. For such an operation, she said, she would find the strength to stand and walk. "In any case, my life is not life" and "Let my soul die with the Philistines". Her proposal was rejected, of course. Fania Raskin passed away on 20.7.1947, Menachem Av 5777, in Jerusalem at the age of 31. ]{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  30. ^ a b c רסקין פַניה – “מרגלית” – העמותה להנצחת מורשת לח״י (in Hebrew).
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Bibliography

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