Three Molotov cocktails were thrown from the roof of the Dizengoff shopping mall in the heart of Tel Aviv Sunday night, but caused no casualties or damage.
More than 50 Arabs in the vicinity were taken into custody for questioning. According to police, the gasoline bombs fell on a quiet residential street shortly after 9 p.m. local time. One ignited underneath a car but was quickly extinguished by passersby.
Police found a fourth unlighted gasoline-filled bottle on the roof of the multi-level mall, which stands astride Dizengoff Street and is one of the city’s largest shopping centers.
The attack, the first of its kind in Tel Aviv, was described as one of the most daring and most dastardly because it had the potential to seriously injure civilians.
The mall and its hundreds of shops employ Israeli and West Bank and Gaza Strip Arabs who do clean-up and maintenance work.
Molotov cocktails are a favorite weapon of the Arab uprising in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Premier Yitzhak Shamir seized on the Tel Aviv attack as proof that the Palestinians’ aim is not to win back territory but the destruction of Israel.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
