Last Etzel Fighter Recalls Secret Role in 1946 King David Hotel Bombing
Eighty years after the dramatic bombing that shook British Mandate rule and destroyed its central headquarters at Jerusalem's King David Hotel, 98-year-old Haim Itani recounts his involvement in the operation. Itani, considered the last surviving participant of this controversial underground action, played a key logistical role in transporting the explosive-laden milk cans used in the attack. He describes the extreme secrecy maintained within the Etzel organization, where operatives only knew what was necessary for their tasks. Itani only realized the true purpose of the cans after the bombing itself.
He vividly recalls receiving the cans in Tel Aviv from the Tnuva dairy on Herzl Street, then transporting seven heavy milk cans over an hour to a bus station in Givat Herzl. There, other Etzel fighters took over and moved the cans to Jerusalem. Itani also remembers recruiting a local cart driver to help move the cans, convincing him of the seriousness and legitimacy of the job. From a nearby street, a truck then transported the cans to Jerusalem, where they were filled with powerful explosives.
Historian and researcher Moshe Kashi, who authored Itani's biography and serves as a heritage officer in the IDF, details the operation on July 22, 1946. Two Etzel squads disguised as Arabs entered the King David Hotel and placed the explosive cans inside the hotel's restaurant near structural pillars. One fighter activated a 30-minute delay timer. Another squad warned hotel occupants by phone to evacuate. About 25 minutes later, a massive explosion destroyed the hotel's southern wing across seven floors, shaking Jerusalem.
The blast not only demolished the building but also destroyed hundreds of valuable British intelligence documents accumulated since the "Black Sabbath" events. The British Mandate authorities responded harshly with mass arrests and death sentences for many Etzel members. The bombing killed 91 people, mostly British and Arabs, alongside 17 Jews, and injured dozens more who required medical treatment.
