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When Tel Aviv Was Bombed - by the Italians
(Ha'aretz) Ofer Aderet - On Sep. 9, 1940, 80 years ago, Italian warplanes bombed Tel Aviv, killing 137 people. Ha'aretz called it "indiscriminate bombings," noting the attack on "a city whose only 'sin' is that it's Jewish." Italy, an ally of Nazi Germany, launched the planes from Rhodes that dropped four tons of bombs. Tel Aviv historian Ilan Shchori recounted, "There was total shock. No one had expected it. Tel Aviv had been calm." On June 12, 1941, French planes killed 13 in Tel Aviv when a bomb fell on a home for invalids near the Habima Theater. On July 15, 1940, 10 Italian planes dropped 50 bombs on Haifa. Another bombing, on July 24, left 46 dead, with another 90 wounded. Historian Nir Arielli at the University of Leeds has documented 30 attacks by French, Italian and German warplanes on Mandatory Palestine during World War II, which killed over 200 civilians.